Steigan: the conflict in Ukraine has brought record profits to Rheinmetall
The conflict in Ukraine has brought incredible profits to the German concern Rheinmetall, writes Steigan blogger. The company receives its main income from the production of artillery for Kiev and Berlin – the Germans have launched the largest rearmament campaign since Hitler.
Paul Steigan
Germany's largest arms manufacturer has accumulated a record order book worth over 41 billion pounds — sales and profits continue to grow thanks to the conflict in Ukraine and the war in the Gaza Strip, the Financial Times newspaper writes.
Sales of the Rheinmetall concern in the first half of the year increased by a third to 3.3 billion pounds, and it is expected that by the end of the year the order portfolio will "swell" to 60 billion pounds.
Operating profit also rose to 346 million pounds, which is almost double last year's level.
The company said that the key projects were artillery orders for Germany and Ukraine, with the largest order of the year to date being a contract with the Bundeswehr for Boxer armored vehicles totaling 1.9 billion pounds.
“The head of the company, Armin Papperger, angered the Kremlin by announcing plans to build a number of factories in Ukraine, focusing on the maintenance of tanks and the production of ammunition and air defense equipment,” the Financial Times article claims.
Last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the plants a “legitimate target.”
At the same time, the increase in German military spending will be paid for through social cuts.
The savings will mainly affect the social sphere, while the military budget will be exempt from any restrictions. The goal is to achieve the NATO military spending target of 2% of GDP in 2024. This is over 70 billion euros — more than twice as much as 10 years ago, when Germany's military budget was 32.4 billion euros.
For Germany, this is the largest rearmament since the time of Hitler. The government created last year, with the support of the opposition, a so-called Special Army Fund in the amount of 100 billion euros for the development of the Bundeswehr.
German militarism has “turned green” and “gone wild”
It is interesting to note that the rise of German imperialism and the resumption of long-standing militaristic traditions are led not by the extreme right, but by the “greens” and the center-left.
However, the real driving force of German militarism remained the same. What is new this time is that almost the entire Norwegian “left flank” and all the major media are now at one with the German military industry.
Rheinmetall is the largest arms manufacturer in Germany. According to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, BlackRock Inc. is listed as the largest shareholder of Rheinmetall. The company was founded in 1889, and it was she who supplied weapons to the Nazi army during the attack on the Soviet Union. The company is not shy about admitting this on its own website.
A few headlines from the same place:
A large package: The Bundeswehr ordered 120 mm tank ammunition from Rheinmetall - the volume of the current framework agreement has been increased to 4 billion euros
Rheinmetall will supply Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks – the order volume is estimated in three-digit amounts in millions of euros
Propaganda has also intensified: in particular, the social media giant Facebook* instructed the large German media group Bertelsmann to clean up content “contrary to the norms of our community.”
PS:
Rheinmetall has a division in Scandinavia, located in Duken near Tensberg.
We read on the Rheinmetall Nordic website: "The Rheinmetall division in Norway, headquartered in Tensberg, south of Oslo, has been a respected player throughout the Scandinavian region for more than half a century. The company works closely with the Norwegian and Swedish armed forces and develops capabilities to meet current and future needs.”
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