Tanks, artillery & ammunition
Rheinmetall has more full order books than ever before
After the end of the Cold War, Germany’s armaments’ demand was troubled. In the meantime, it looks very different, as Rheinmetall numbers show: the weapon business is booming.
Driven by the consequences of the Ukraine War and the changed global political situation, Germany’s largest armaments group Rheinmetall did significantly more business. Sales rose to around 9.8 billion euros last year and 36 percent higher than 2023, the company said in Düsseldorf. The business became more profitable, the operational result ran up to around 1.5 billion and thus as high in the company’s history to around 1.5 billion.
Another maximum value can be read in the order books, the inventory of which is 55 billion euros and is therefore 44 percent higher than a year earlier. What is meant is the “backlog”, in which the order stock, framework contracts and concrete expectations from other business relationships are listed. At the end of 2021 – before the beginning of the Ukraine War – the Rheinmetall Backlog had only 24.5 billion euros.
Since then, the weapons smithy has experienced a booming demand; The Bundeswehr and other NATO countries buy vigorously and they want to spend even more money in the future than before. Rheinmetall produces tanks, artillery, military truck, air defense, drones and ammunition. The company is now making 80 percent of its corporate sales with military goods, and its business as a car supplier is becoming more important.
Economically shiny prospects
The capacities have already been increased massively and will continue to do so, explained company boss Armin Papperger. “An era of upgrading in Europe has started, which will ask all of us a lot.” It will bring Rheinmetall for the coming years never experienced growth perspectives. For 2025, the Rheinmetall board expects a sales increase of 25 to 30 percent and further increased profitability of the business.
In view of the political signals that have recently come from Brussels and Berlin and are likely to mean significantly more investments in the military, the business may be even more popular than previously thought. Because the company points out that the forecast “the improvement of the market potential”, which is expected to result from the developments of the past few weeks, has not yet been taken into account.
Therefore, the company would “make forecasts in the further course of the year,” said the company. US President Donald Trump wants Europe to take care of his own defense and therefore invest more in the military.
Rheinmetall claimed to have 27,244 employees last year and thus 649 more than 2023. The administrative center is in Düsseldorf and the largest work is in Lower Saxony. Another important production location is in Kassel.
dpa
Source: Stern
