Director of Ukrainian Armor announces the cost of building a gunpowder plant

The private enterprise Ukrainian Armor has received an offer from a Western company to build a domestic gunpowder plant. The director of the company answered how much it would cost and what issues stand behind such a proposal.

Vladyslav Belbas, the company's director, spoke about this in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda.

How much does it cost to build a gunpowder plant

As Vladyslav Belbas explained, a Western company offered Ukrainian Armor a gunpowder plant for 20 million euros. It is a limited production of gunpowder. In particular, if such a plant were built, it would process only nitrocellulose, which is a simple stage in the production cycle. 

"In three years, we received only one proposal from a Western company that offered to build a plant for 20 million euros to process nitrocellulose into gunpowder. It was about 600 tons of gunpowder per year, enough for 160,000 rounds of 122-millimeter ammunition," he said. 

The gunpowder plant could increase ammunition production by hundreds of thousands

Vladyslav Belbes added that if Ukrainian producers had stable access to gunpowder, the number of shells produced could increase by hundreds of thousands per year. 

However, the construction of a gunpowder plant is dangerous, as the facility will be a target for Russian missiles. It will also be difficult to import nitrocellulose from abroad. 

Previously, a domestically produced demining machine was successfully tested in Ukraine. It was also reported that testing of a Ukrainian aerial bomb is nearing completion.