Global War Economy
The global gross income from arms sales of the
100 largest
arms-producing and military services companies in
the world
excluding China was $420 billion in 2018, an
increase of 4.6 per
cent compared with 2017. This annual total using a
constant 2018
dollar was 47 per cent higher than in 2002. The
growth from 2017
to 2018 occurred mainly in sales by the top five
U.S. companies,
which the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute (SIPRI) says, "can be
correlated to increases in global
military expenditure, particularly the rise in
U.S. spending from
2017 to 2018."
Seventy companies based in the USA and Europe
accounted for 83
per cent of total Top 100 arms sales. At $348
billion in 2018,
their combined arms sales were 5.2 per cent higher
than in 2017
with most of the growth in U.S. companies. Arms
sales of
companies based in Europe in the Top 100 totalled
$102 billion in
2018 with some of that production in the United
States. For
example, the arms sales of the USA-based
subsidiary of BAE
Systems were approximately $10 billion in 2018,
equivalent to a
48 per cent share of BAE Systems' total arms sales
of $21.2
billion.
Ten companies in Russia were listed in the Top
100 with
combined gross income of $36.2 billion. SIPRI
reports that while
this figure remained largely unchanged from 2017,
their share of
total Top 100 arms sales dropped from 9.7 per cent
to 8.6 per
cent in 2018 because of "the substantial growth in
the combined
arms sales of U.S. and European companies."
Russia's largest arms producer, Almaz-Antey, was
the only
Russian company ranked in the top 10 (at 9th
position) and
accounted for 27 per cent of the total arms sales
of Russian
companies in the Top 100. Almaz-Antey's arms sales
rose by 18 per
cent in 2018, to $9.6 billion "due not only to
strong domestic
demand, but also to continued growth in sales to
other countries,
particularly of the S-400 air defence system,"
writes SIPRI
researcher Alexandra Kuimova.
Twenty Top 100 companies are found outside the
U.S., Europe
and Russia with six based in Japan, three each in
Israel, India
and the Republic of Korea (south Korea), two in
Turkey and one
each in Singapore, Australia and Canada (CAE Inc.
at 87th
position with $1.01 billion in arms sales, a one
year growth of
19 per cent).
The six Japanese companies had a combined gross
income from
the sale of arms of $9.9 billion accounting for
2.4 per cent of
the Top 100 total.
The three Israeli companies' arms sales of $8.7
billion
accounted for 2.1 per cent of the Top 100 total.
The combined arms sales of the three Indian arms
companies
listed in the Top 100 were $5.9 billion in 2018.
The three companies based in south Korea had
combined arms
sales of $5.2 billion in 2018, equivalent to 1.2
per cent of the
Top 100 total.
Arms sales by the two Turkish companies listed in
the Top 100
increased by 22 per cent in 2018, to $2.8 billion.
SIPRI writes, "Turkey aims to develop and
modernize its arms industry and
Turkish companies continued to benefit from these
efforts in
2018."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 32 - December 21, 2019
Article Link:
Global War Economy
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
