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First batches of Belarus-made cartridges sold abroad

Friday, 10 January 2020

The first batches of Belarus-made cartridges have already been delivered to the customer, Director General of the State-Owned Foreign Trade Enterprise Belspetsvneshtechnika Aleksei Skraga told the SB. Belarus Segondya newspaper.

The work to build a cartridge factory in Orsha District began about two years ago. The facility is still under construction, therefore, Belspetsvneshtechnika is implementing the cartridge production project through its subsidiary enterprise BSVT-New Technology. This is an entire production complex incorporating storage facilities for component parts and a system of their delivery to the production site, manufacturing premises, packaging and registration facilities, laboratory testing and warehouses for finished products. There is a dozen machines. Some of them can roll out 2,400 cartridges per hour, others produce 3,550.

“The first batches of cartridges have already been produced and delivered to the customer. These are 7.62х54, 7.62х39 and 9х19 cartridges for sporting and hunting rifles. The customer is happy. Another big batch of products will be shipped soon. I will tell you more: nearly every week we receive foreign delegations.

They study our cartridges and many place orders. I will not reveal the details, but we have orders for years ahead. The lineup will be expanded based on customer needs; we have everything in place for that,” Aleksei Skraga said. The first batch of over 5 million cartridges was shipped to one of European countries. According to Aleksei Skraga, this cartridge production facility can meet Belarus' needs for all kinds of cartridges, including cartridges for sporting and hunting rifles, firearms, and if needed, blanks.

“Our ammunition has a world-class quality, but for a number of reasons it is much cheaper for domestic consumption and more attractive for foreign customers,” the director general said. The company has certified production of sporting and hunting cartridges.

“The certification of cartridges for firearms is nearing completion. All the necessary conditions have been met; some minor formalities are left. In other words, the country has established its own cartridge production industry,” Aleksei Skraga underlined. At present component parts are bought from Russia. “Import substitution is on the agenda now. We are working on it. We have plans to launch cellulose nitrate production. We are also considering construction of a gunpowder factory.

Our metallurgy industry is also up to par. With eight metallurgy industry giants in the country, there will be no problem to launch production of cartridge components. The question is whether it will make economic sense,” the company chief said. He added that discarded R-27 missiles were stored in the place where cartridges are now produced.

“After a thorough examination of the missiles our specialists suggested repairing them. As a result, they provided the Armed Forces with over a hundred restored and ready-to-use missiles. Each of them costs more than $900,000 on the international market. This is not a single order; there are substantial reserves of these and similar missiles that can be restored and even upgraded; they are in demand on the market,” Aleksei Skraga added.
erlink to eng.belta.by.