Rheinmetall plans to receive the ‘ok’ from the Government this year to unclog its largest ammunition factory in Spain

The Murcia factory of Rheinmetall Expal Munitions, the largest ammunition plant that the German multinational has in Spain, continues to suffer the damage of the explosion in its facilities that caused the death of a worker and left several injured on January 30. Nine months later, with an inspection by the National Police where “security irregularities” were detected, The company continues to depend on government authorization to restart the sieving processes, the last phase of production and essential to market the complete cartridges.

Dirk Winkels, as head of the group’s investor relations, spoke about this setback this week in a call to which this medium has had access. “As for the sale of ammunition, we still need to obtain approval from the Spanish authorities for the reestablishment of the screening process in Murcia. “Everything else is ready, but the customer wants complete ammunition and, at the moment, we cannot deliver the propulsion because this last step, which was destroyed during an accident at the beginning of the year, has not obtained the necessary permits to start production,” he argued.

The same manager, however, believes that they will receive permission before the end of the year. “It is expected that we can obtain approval by the end of the year (…) We hope this will materialize in the fourth quarter, but it is not definitive” glimpsed before quantifying in “approximately 300 million” the impact “for not being able to deliver from Murcia”. According to the documentation consulted, the inspection powers of this center located in Javalí Viejo correspond to the State, through the Government Delegation in the Region of Murcia.

The truth is that this administrative obstacle has been causing a certain headache for the group led by Armin Papperger. Months ago it was the CEO himself who explained this situation to analysts during the presentation of his half-year results: “Murcia presents us with a problem with ammunition, since We cannot sell complete cartridges as requested by the customer.. “This is currently the largest ammunition factory we have in Spain and the gunpowder is ready, but sieving is the last step of production and requires permission from the Government to restart it,” he then explained.

After shooting for fifteen his result

The German arms company channels its business in this plant under its subsidiary Rheinmetall Expal Munitions, as it also does in five other plants located in Trubia (Asturias), Mesa Paramo (Burgos), Navalmoral and The Fat Man (Cáceres), and Albacete. Based in Madrid, the company specializes in the production of mortar shells, medium caliber ammunition, fuses and rocket propulsion systems, and works for both international armies and the Spanish Armed Forces.

Financially, before knowing the extent of the Murcia accident, the company has been growing at an accelerated pace after multiplying profits by fifteen in the last year with a net profit of 207.5 million eurosaccording to the accounts deposited in the Commercial Registry. The strong increase in profitability is explained by the jump in turnover, which reached 639.4 million eurosfour times more than that recorded a year ago.