Hard-to-find gunpowder is preventing Europe from providing hundreds of thousands of rounds to defend Ukraine.
“We are all facing shortages of some components, especially gunpowder,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday after a meeting of Kyiv’s allies in Paris.
“Gunpowder is what is in short supply today,” he added.
There are very few powder producers in Europe, said Jean-Paul Molny, deputy director of the French Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).
These include firms such as Eurenco, with operations in France, Belgium and Sweden, and Nitrochemie, which is majority owned by Rheinmetall, with operations in Germany and Switzerland.
As many countries look to bring production home, France "is in the process of moving some of Eurenco's production to Bourges," about 200 km (125 miles) south of Paris, Molney said.
“This is one of the bottlenecks in the supply of ammunition,” he added. “The main issue is the quantity of production.”
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters in Paris on Friday that the bloc was also facing problems in sourcing raw materials for gunpowder.
“To make gunpowder, you need a special type of cotton, which mainly comes from China,” he said.
Nitrocellulose, also known as gunpowder wool, is a key ingredient in the production of gunpowder.
“Did you know that the supply of this cotton from China stopped, as if by accident, a few months ago,” Breton added.
China and Russia have stepped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years, and their strategic partnership has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.
In Russia this week, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Sun Weidong said relations were "experiencing the best period in history."
Breton said that "The Scandinavian countries have found a substitute for Chinese cotton… innovation works precisely to meet the need for powder, because… today we have problems with the production of gunpowder."
Companies producing gunpowder replacement ingredients will be among those selected to receive grants under the EU Ammunition Support Act (ASAP), which will be announced next week, Breton said.
Breton predicted that EU efforts to increase production of artillery shells would bring the bloc's annual production capacity to 1.5-1.7 million by the end of this year.
He estimates that the equivalent figure for Russia is “just under two million.”
“Everyone gets the opportunity to produce on a much larger scale,” said IRIS expert Maulney.
“At the moment, the Ukrainians do not have enough shells … and the Russians do not have a shortage because they received supplies from North Korea, but this could happen in the coming months,” he added.
“No one was prepared for a high-intensity conflict that would require enormous consumption of military equipment. We haven’t seen a war like this since World War II,” Molney said.