3 Indian defence manufacturers make it to top 100

New Delhi, December 6

Three Indian defence manufacturers have made it to the list of top 100 global companies making arms, planes and other military equipment. The details were released on Monday morning by Swedish think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its report ‘Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies, 2020’.

The sales of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (ranked 42nd) and Bharat Electronics (66th) rose by 1.5 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively, during 2020. The sales of Indian Ordnance Factories (60th) saw a marginal rise of 0.2 per cent. All three are owned by the Ministry of Defence. “Their aggregated arms sales of $6.5 billion (approx Rs 48,750 crore, accounting for 1.2% of the top 100’s total) were 1.7% higher in 2020 than in 2019,” said the report. Domestic procurement has helped shield Indian companies against the negative economic consequences of the pandemic, the report said.

It also mentions that China is now second only to the US in terms of arms manufacturing. The combined sales of five Chinese companies figuring in top 100 stood at an estimated $66.8 billion in 2020—1.5% more than in 2019. “With a 13% share of the total top 100, Chinese companies had the second highest volume of aggregated arms sales in 2020, which is just behind US firms and ahead of UK companies,” the report said. The five Chinese companies figure in top 20 while three of them are in top 10, it said. All the Chinese companies in the top 100 are state-owned, producing military and civilian products. Most of the revenue generated by these firms is derived from civilian sales. — TNS