Ammo Shortage Imminent – The Chinese Gunpowder Crisis

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The Great Powder Shortage of 2024 Is Said To Be Imminent. Many importers & manufacturers’ are claiming that nitrocellulose, a core component of gunpowder that originates from the cotton plant in China, is facing a shortage.

Nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton, is a highly flammable compound that’s a mixture of nitric esters of cellulose. It’s made by treating cellulose with a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acid.  Cellulose is the main substance in the walls of plant cells, helping plants to remain stiff and upright.  In 1833, M. Braconet, of Paris, made the discovery that starch, sawdust and cotton wool, when treated with concentrated nitric acid, became very inflammable, taking fire at a temperature of 356 Fah., but were not really explosive. This invention remained merely as a chemical curiosity until 1846, when Professor Schonbein, of Vienna, made the discovery of rendering cotton explosive by the use of sulphuric acid combined with the nitric.

According to industry insiders, allegedly the shortage is a direct result of China refusing to sell nitrocellulose to Western nations or Europe & Only supplying Russian Interests.

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Currently, we are enjoying some of the lowest ammo prices in years, but if this is true it will disrupt the supply chain dramatically before the election causing fall ammo prices to skyrocket.  Here is a message that we (Tactical Shit) were sent from Powder Valley made JUST TODAY 5/9/2024 that confirms this is really happening!

While doing our own independent research this seem to be tracking with what we have seen in the past months with the Russian Side of the current Eastern Conflict over in Ukraine.  Despite international sanctions aimed at restricting Moscow’s wartime production, Russia has significantly increased its imports of nitrocellulose – a crucial explosive compound essential for production of gunpowder.

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The Eastern Conflict Compounds This Issue

According to a Wall Street Journal report, citing trade data, these imports have surged by 70% in 2022, the year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and by mid-2023, they had reached 3,039 tons, almost double the level of 2021.

The surge in Russian nitrocellulose imports comes at a time when defense companies worldwide are struggling to secure this vital material due to a shortage, leading to price hikes and production bottlenecks. Nitrocellulose, primarily used in munitions, faces strict international trade regulations, limiting its production to only a few countries.

In April 2024 Members of Congress announced legislation to prod the Biden administration to conduct an inventory of the U.S. gunpowder supply chain and offer suggestions to ensure enough will be available for the military and the average consumer.

Sen. James E. Risch, Idaho Republican, and Rep. Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican, are leading the effort. They said law-abiding Americans could struggle to get ammunition amid a global crunch of nitrocellulose.

Few nations produce nitrocellulose. Thailand, China and India are considered the most significant players. The U.S. is a net importer.

The problem lies with both supply and demand. The Russia-Ukraine war has created a massive sinkhole for munitions, and China has tightened its supply.

In the U.S., gun aficionado websites lit up in January after an ammunition dealer said he was at a firearms industry show and learned that nitrocellulose was in short supply.

The consensus was that China was reluctant to sell to the U.S. because so much of the supply was being pumped into munitions for Ukraine. Defense industry manufacturers are scarfing up much of the supply reaching the U.S.

European officials say the scarcity is affecting the ability to rearm Ukraine.

“Powder is really what’s lacking today,” French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged earlier this year.

Sam Gabbert, owner of SGAmmo, said factories seemed to have gunpowder stockpiled, but “this issue is expected to catch up to them no later than the summer of 2024 and possibly within a few months.”

Rumors were circulating in March on message boards about an overheard conversation with a Hodgdon, an ammo manufacturing company, Rep, and an AZ ammo purchaser.

Hodgdon had also given the same warning, independent of what Vista Outdoors (Alliant) had said over 3 months ago. But the Hodgdon rep had more details about how/why the shortage was expected. According to that Hodgdon rep, the cellulose used in making the nitrocellulose base of powders comes primarily from Ukraine. The chaff (stalks and straw from the processing of wheat, corn, sunflowers and other agricultural products harvested and processed in Ukraine) resulting as waste product from harvested crops is pound for pound the cheapest cellulose fiber available on the world market. Cheaper than sawdust or other traditional cellulose industrial sources. What little agricultural chaff available for nitrocellulose production still exists is being prioritized for routing to the European/NATO propellant manufacturers still being funded and contracted for the war effort. With Republicans now phuking with the Ukraine support mission, the supply is no longer available to us. U.S. propellant manufacturers have to now domestically source new cellulose suppliers. That isn’t difficult;…there is plenty of cellulose to be had right here at home. But it is more expensive.

These findings have left us with a pretty concrete theory that we WILL be seeing a rise in the cost, and price of ammunition to the U.S. Consumer.  Now, we don’t wanna be seen as “fear-mongering” but there is definitely going to be change in the market, and we would hate to say we told you so.



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