American ammunition investors are the latest targets of Russian sanction retaliation and the war in the Ukraine.
In August, Biden signed a DOJ order banning the future approval of import licenses for Russian Ammunition. Many expected this to be an immediate end to the Russian ammo supply which makes up 40% of the American ammunition available to civilians.
However, it was not an immediate end as importers with existing, previously approved permits could still import brands like Tul Ammo and Barnual for the foreseeable future, even years. Other importers looked to non Russian sources like Turkey (where Maxxtech and Igman ammo is manufactured and Bulgaria (Where Arsenal Ammo is made) or Serbia (where Belom is made).
The importers with the existing Russian permits were poised to make a lot of money. They raised their prices and set the market.
Then on April 6th, devastation.
ARRC is the company that leaves once a month from the Port of St. Petersburg, Russia.. They had a ship named Atlantic Action II that had already cleared Russian authorities and was set to sail that day when it was suddenly boarded by Russian Government Customs Officials. They demanded that 115 shipping containers be offloaded and not allowed to leave the country “pending individual inspection”. It is said that all of these containers were containing approximately 24 pallets of ammunition which can be in turn estimated to be over 132,000,000 (132 Million) rounds of ammunition with a “street value” in America of over 50 Million Dollars.
The bad part is that 100% of the funds for this ammunition supply has reportedly already been paid to the Russian ammo manufacturers. Many ammo industry import experts are doubtful that this ammunition will ever be allowed to leave and will probably find it’s way to the Ukraine being fired in anger from Russian weapons.
This is a huge blow to American ammunition availability and future pricing. It is also devastating to many of the investors that have little to no recourse to recoup their losses.