We’ve gone from the biggest hoarding event the shooting world has ever seen to a full house run on munitions by half the world’s militaries.
One big military primer order exceeds what we burn through in a year. Plus most of the governments in the western world have told the munition manufacturers to start producing. Most countries have War Production Acts similar to ours.
Japan military spending is the biggest proportion of GDP since…….1945.
The German Parliament has voted to spend the biggest proportion of GDP since……..1945.
Look at Enduron powders—that plant went from 8k 155mm artillery rounds to 12k a month, and is adding on to the facility to make 20k+ a month.
Rheimetal—one the biggest munitions manufacturer in the world appears to have secured financing to build a 25k artillery rounds a month plant.
The raw materials have be dug out of the ground, refined, combined, and processed just to arrive at the basic components.
This kind of demand creates scarcity of basic materials/commodities and is sending prices through the roof.
From Poland to the Philippines the whole world is arming up, and civilian recreational shooters/handloaders are the last hairs on the tip of the tail.
There’s no conspiracy here—unless we choose to point the finger at Putin, Ping….and Iran.
This--plus the rise in price of various materials in the past 20 years. Basic cartridge brass (which is very similar to the brass used in primers) has more than doubled since the first "primer shortage," which took place during the buying panic inspired by the Clinton "assault rifle ban" in the 1990s. (Back then some shooters were outraged when primer prices went over $30 a 1000. There was also an Internet rumor going around that all new-produced primers were designed to "go dud" within six months, so some were putting their supply of "pre-Clinton" primers in PVC pipe and burying them, so the primer police couldn't confiscate them.)
Given the world's military demand for ammo I don't see prices coming down anytime soon....
