Another assault on ammunition was in the news today:
BREAKING: Latest ATF Move Could Cause Ammunition Price Spike Due To Component Reclassification
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/08/30/breaking-latest-atf-move-cause-ammunition-price-spike-due-component-reclassification/It is worth remembering that there is only
one plant in the USA that manufactures smokeless powders, ATK. Most of our "American" smokeless powders are manufactured elsewhere and imported.
General Dynamics American company that makes all Canadian-made IMR rifle powders, all Winchester Ball powders, some Accurates, the Alliant shpericals (PowerPro), and some Hodgdons.
ATK American company that apparently makes all American-made Alliant pistol/shotgun powders (the flake powders, basically).
Thales French company that owns ADI, makes all of Hodgy's "Extreme" rifle powders, plus some IMRs. At least 27% owned by the State of France, and 25.9% owned by Dassault.
Rheinmetall German owner of Nitrochemie. Makes Reloder-17. Don't know about other commercial powders.
Groupe SNPE French State-owned. Makes all Bofors (most of the Reloder line, and the Norma line) and Ramshot powders via their Eurenco layer.
Nammo Makes Vihtavuori powders, pending regulatory approval of purchase from Eurenco. Nammo is owned 50/50 by the State of Norway and Patria group. Patria is 73.2% owned by the State of Finland, 26.8% by Airbus Industries. So, Nammo is 50% Norwegian, 36.6% Finnish, and 13.4% French.
https://www.shootersforum.com/handloading-procedures-practices/55963-where-smokeless-made-american-powders.html
Further, the last lead smelter in the USA closed last year.
The supply chain of both lead and powder are at risk.
Topic: choke points---powder lead (Read 466 times)