The war in Ukraine has allowed the world's largest arms manufacturers to increase their order backlog to a record level.
The total volume of unfinished orders for 15 defense conglomerates by the end of 2022 amounted to $777.6 billion (compared to $701.2 billion in 2020), and for the first six months of 2023, it increased to $764 billion.
Thus, almost in two years of war, the overall order backlog of the largest defense companies has grown by over 10%.
The list of companies includes American companies Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Boeing, British BAE Systems, German Rheinmetall, South Korean Hanwha Aerospace, and others.
The most significant growth is observed at Hanwha Aerospace: over two years, the volume of unfinished orders in the company increased by more than seven times—from $2.4 billion in 2020 to $15.2 billion at the end of 2022.
The South Korean conglomerate 'significantly benefited from orders' related to Ukraine, including those made for Poland.
The volume of unfinished orders for the Rheinmetall company almost doubled: from $14.8 billion in 2020 to $27.9 billion at the end of the past year. By mid-2023, it reached $32.5 billion.
The increase in global demand for weapons has sparked investor interest in the defense sector.
For example, the global MSCI index for the aerospace and defense industry has grown by 25% in the last 12 months. At the same time, the European stock index Stoxx Aerospace and Defence increased by more than 50% over the same period.
The growth in indexes reflects investors' confidence that higher government spending on defense will remain for a long time.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending increased by 3.7% in real terms in 2022, reaching a new high of $2,240 billion.
In Europe, military expenditures have sharply risen in the last 30 years as European governments announced new orders for ammunition and tanks to replenish national stocks depleted after sending equipment to Ukraine.
