Nagpur's bomb bazaar makes explosive profits

NAGPUR: As the flash of guns light up the Russia-Ukraine war front and rockets fly in West Asia, cash registers are ringing at explosives manufacturing units in Nagpur, more than 4,500 km from the battle zones. The city is already informally known as India’s explosives capital where representatives of global arms corporations window-shop along a 30-km stretch on Nagpur’s outskirts.

The buyers thronging Nagpur are mostly from Bulgaria, Spain, Germany, South Africa, Vietnam, Poland, Brazil, and even Saudi Arabia. There are no conflicts in these countries, yet there’s huge demand from them. These countries are stashing ammunition on a war footing.

Nagpur cos shipped out ₹900cr arms in 3 months, Rs 3,000 crore to go

Sources told TOI the final destination of these munitions could be somewhere else. Shells of 155mm calibre, fired from howitzer guns, and 40mm shoulder-fired rockets have high demand, say top sources in the business. In the last three months, orders for Rs 900 crore worth of shells, rockets and other bombs have been dispatched and orders of at least Rs 3,000 crore are under execution. A similar count is expected for raw explosive powder, say industry sources.



From listed companies and mid-sized ancillary units to newly formed defence public sector undertakings, it’s raining orders. “No, we aren’t supplying even a single round of ammo to any nation at war,” the manufacturers insist.

Buyers from other countries are issuing end-use certificates and, based on these, Indian manufacturers are getting govt licences to sell. Exports are banned to certain countries due to geo-political equations, said top arms industry sources.

Since countries are issuing end-use certificates, it means the munitions are for their own consumption. Officially, the Indian military industry is not profiteering from war, said manufacturers here. The ministry of commerce maintains district-wise export figures. Data from fiscal 2021-22 till the current fiscal is available on the website.

This year, there is a new category in the export list from Nagpur: bombs and grenades. Bombs worth Rs 770 crore have been exported from Nagpur from April to June. Figures for the next quarter are yet to be compiled. Consignments were sent from neighbouring Chandrapur district, too, over the last two years. In the last fiscal, consignments of bombs worth Rs 458 crore were sent out from Chandrapur. The value of exports from April to June this year stands at Rs 171 crore for the district.

The bombs and grenades category stands for complete ammunition. These are ready-to-fire rounds. In Nagpur, Yantra India Ltd (YIL), a PSU formed out of Ordnance Factory Ambhajhari three years ago, makes shells. In 1999, when India fell short of shells during the Kargil war, the same unit stepped up production on a war footing to feed the Bofors guns that changed the game on the glaciers.

Another PSU, Munitions India Ltd (MIL), has ordnance factories at Chandrapur and Bhandara that load shells with explosives. Both public corporations (MIL & YIL) share a symbiotic relationship and have a fat export order book these days, say sources.

This is just one aspect, say sources in the business. Apart from ammunition-like shells and rockets, there is great demand globally for high-energy raw material too, which Nagpur companies are catering to. Here, the private sector also has a major say. Solar Industries is one of the major players in this product category, along with MIL, a PSU.

TOI also accessed records maintained by private portals on the basis of export filings made by exporters to govt agencies. It shows sizeable exports of raw materials for manufacturing rockets, shells and bombs — HMX, RDX and TNT. The raw powder was sold to arms corporations across Europe, the Far East, and West Asia, shows data from official records.