European defense companies see surge in orders
2024-08-07
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The Master Control 200 air defense system produced by the French company Thales.
Recently, French defense company Thales released its performance data for the first half of 2024. The data showed that the company's orders in the first half of 2024 reached 10.8 billion euros (about 11.6 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 26% over the same period in 2023, setting a record high. Analysts said that the surge in Thales' orders is a microcosm of the current hot European military market.
According to foreign media reports, Thales' orders in the first half of this year mainly came from the defense and aerospace fields. It is reported that Thales received 9 orders with a unit price of more than 100 million euros in the defense field in the first half of the year, of which 3 orders had a unit price of more than 500 million euros, including providing avionics equipment, radar systems and combat systems for 42 Rafale fighter jets in Indonesia, participating in the construction of two additional F126 frigates purchased by Germany, and providing an air surveillance system for Middle Eastern customers.
In recent years, as regional conflicts intensify, military spending in European countries has continued to grow. In addition to Thales, other European defense companies have also ushered in a large-scale order wave. Data show that the European Missile Group's revenue in 2023 is 4.5 billion euros, an increase of 10% over 2022. In June this year, Germany's Rheinmetall announced that it had reached an agreement with the German Federal Armed Forces on an ammunition procurement contract worth 8.5 billion euros. In addition, from January 2022 to February 2024, the share prices of five defense companies, including Sweden's Saab, Italy's Leonardo, Britain's Rolls-Royce, Norway's Kongsberg, and Britain's Bay Systems, all rose by more than 120%.
In addition to the surge in orders for European defense companies caused by regional conflicts, the introduction of relevant policies and regulations has also played a boosting role. According to foreign media reports, from February 2022 to June 2023, nearly 80% of the EU member states' spending on defense procurement was paid to third countries, most of which went to the United States. In order to reduce dependence on the United States, in March this year, the European Commission issued its first "European Defense Industry Strategy", proposing that by 2030, the volume of internal EU defense trade will account for at least 35% of the total EU defense market, and more than 50% of the military equipment ordered by member states will be produced independently in Europe. Subsequently, the EU announced that it would allocate nearly 2 billion euros to strengthen Europe's defense technology and industrial base, of which 310 million euros were allocated to the "Strengthening the European Defense Industry through Joint Procurement Act" project. After the introduction of a series of policies, the European defense market has changed significantly. According to foreign media reports, the European Missile Group currently has 28 billion euros in military orders, of which 50% come from France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
(Source: China National Defense News)
