Russian manufacturers accused of inflating prices for armored steel after the announcement of mobilization
According to data from the telegram channel Nezygar, in the three weeks since the announcement of mobilization in Russia, the demand for armored steel increased by an average of 547% compared to the August period. At the same time, the equipment that military personnel mobilized in the Russian Federation are forced to purchase at their own expense has almost completely disappeared from the shelves of army stores and websites of key suppliers.
“According to market apologists, the shortage was natural in nature, resulting from the exhaustion of production capacity limits and a sharp rise in the cost of raw materials - for example, at the moment the price per square meter of Russian armored steel of the 5th protection class 45X2NMFBA varies from 100 to 250 thousand rubles per depending on the region, which, excluding labor costs and other components, is almost 7-14 times more expensive than in the same period last year,” the message says.
The total shortage of armor steel in Russia has created ideal conditions for the black market of military equipment and the supply of defective products through dubious supply channels, journalists say.
According to analysts, the largest manufacturer of armored steel in Russia remains the metallurgical company Severstal, one of the richest citizens of the Russian Federation, Alexei Mordashov, which cannot cope with the sharply increased volumes of orders despite government support.
In Nezygar, they believe that "the geopolitical situation does not interfere, but only accelerates profits in the main direction of income of the Severstal group - government orders for the military-industrial complex."
They emphasized that it was the 4-5-fold increase in the volume of orders for defense enterprises that became the main reason for the rise in prices for armored steel in third-party areas of private suppliers, which provide raw materials for most manufacturers of personal armor protection on the open market.