Russia's war against Ukraine has led to a global shortage of trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT.
Points of attention
- Russia's war against Ukraine has triggered a worldwide shortage of TNT, disrupting the production of explosives globally.
- Traditional TNT suppliers like China, Russia, Poland, and Ukraine are no longer reliable due to the conflict, compelling countries to explore alternative sources.
- New technologies such as drones and 3D scanners are being leveraged to enhance explosives production accuracy and efficiency amidst the TNT scarcity.
TNT became scarce due to the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine
The United States has used TNT for weapons and mining for more than a century. It used to be abundant and relatively cheap.
But TNT production creates hazardous waste, so much so that by the mid-1980s, the U.S. Department of Defense had closed the last plant in the country that made it.
Americans began to rely on foreign suppliers—mainly from China, Russia, Poland, and Ukraine—who offered explosives at low prices while disposing of the hazardous waste themselves.
Another important source of supply for commercial use was TNT, recovered from munitions such as anti-personnel mines, shells, and bombs that the Pentagon routinely decommissioned.
Now, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, these supply chains can no longer be relied upon. For example, a significant portion of what Poland produces is sent to Ukraine, which uses the products for its own military needs. At the same time, Russia and China have stopped exporting to the United States.
As for the American army, the military, having looked at the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian war, decided to leave old weapons in their arsenal.
New technologies are improving the situation in the civilian sector somewhat. Calculations that were previously done manually are now being done faster and more accurately thanks to drones, 3D scanners, and computers that determine how much explosives are needed to perform certain tasks.
The US military also claims "ongoing efforts" to increase domestic production of explosives in the US.
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