Europe’s largest gunpowder factory will be built in Romania, in Brasov County, with an investment of almost €400 million, Senate President and former Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă confirmed on Wednesday.
Speaking at the opening of the Black Sea Defense and Aerospace (BSDA 2024) international military equipment exhibition in Bucharest, the former chief of the general staff, who is now a politician, said that Romania would construct the building with the European Union financing the technical equipment needed to produce the gunpowder.
In March, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced that Romania would have a state-of-the-art gunpowder factory in which the European Union would be a partner. Minister of Economic Entrepreneurship and Tourism Stefan-Radu Oprea added that the Romanian defense industrial trust Romarm is expected to cooperate with Germany’s Rheinmetall to implement the project and that a contract is currently being prepared.
In his welcome speech, the prime minister, who was also present at the opening of BSDA-2024 in Bucharest, said, “Billions of euros could flow into the Romanian economy in the coming period thanks to defense industry orders.”
Several trade agreements with important international partners will also be signed at this event. The Cujir plant will produce weapons in cooperation with a German company, the state-owned ROMARM group will enter into a partnership with the U.S. General Dynamics group to modernize and expand its capacity to produce artillery ammunition to NATO standards, and Romaero, which has been buried by many, will sign an agreement with a long-standing Hungarian partner in the aircraft maintenance sector.
The prime minister added that all European countries consider the defense industry to be a priority sector and that the Romanian government intends to revitalize the industry.
“Romania must no longer make the mistake of closing down some of its arms factories and leaving the rest in a state of near bankruptcy,” he said.
At the BSDA 2024 expo, which is taking place at the Romaero aeronautics factory exhibition area, 400 defense and aeronautics companies from 31 countries are represented. The media star of the expo is a fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet from the U.S. Air Force, which landed in Bucharest on Monday and will be on display to the public until Friday.
