SWEBAL Receives Approval for TNT Production Facility
Europe’s effort to rebuild its ammunition supply chain is beginning to move upstream. Swedish startup Swebal Ballistics has received approval from Sweden’s Land and Environmental Court to construct a new trinitrotoluene production facility in Nora, which the company says would be Sweden’s first TNT plant since the Cold War. The ruling follows an extensive regulatory review and clears the way for construction to begin in 2026, with full-scale output targeted for 2028, as NATO moves to expand munitions production capacity across the alliance.
In a July interview with the New York Times, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia was rebuilding its military capacity at an unprecedented pace, producing several times more ammunition in a matter of months than NATO had produced in a year. By November, speaking at the NATO Industry Forum, Rutte said the gap was beginning to narrow as allies opened new production lines and expanded existing ones. Closing that gap, however, requires more than final assembly and depends on rebuilding upstream industrial capacity for energetics and explosives.
Trinitrotoluene remains a foundational input for modern munitions, including artillery shells, aerial bombs, and mines. While NATO governments have directed much of their recent investment toward final ammunition assembly, the supply of explosives such as TNT has emerged as a critical bottleneck. Industry assessments suggest Russia’s annual explosives output could reach roughly 50,000 tonnes of TNT, far exceeding Europe’s current domestic capacity.
Today, Europe has only one major NATO-standard TNT producer: Nitro-Chem in Poland, which has operated since 1948. Its annual capacity is estimated at up to 12,000 tonnes, much of it committed under long-term contracts, including supplies to the United States Department of Defense. As a result, European ammunition manufacturers often rely on imports from Asia, creating strategic exposure in a sector increasingly shaped by geopolitical risk.
Swebal announced a €3 million investment in June to build the Nora facility, following the submission of its environmental documentation to the Land and Environmental Court earlier this year. The funding comes from early-stage investors including Thomas von Koch, co-founder of private equity firm EQT, former Swedish Army chief Karl Engelbrektson, and Pär Svärdson, founder of Swedish e-commerce company Apotea. The company plans to employ around 50 staff at the site, which will operate continuously using a production process known as continuous nitration and comply with Swedish safety and environmental regulations. At full capacity, the plant is expected to produce up to 4,500 tonnes of TNT annually.
A central feature of the project is supply chain localization. Swebal intends to source materials, equipment, and production inputs from suppliers located within roughly 550 kilometers, concentrating its supply chain in the Baltic Sea region. The company says this approach will reduce dependence on distant suppliers while supporting sustained local manufacturing of explosive munitions.
Swebal co-founder and chief executive Joakim Sjöblom described the court’s approval as a strategic turning point rather than a routine permitting milestone. He said the decision represents a fundamental shift in Europe’s ability to secure its own defense supply chain by restoring production of critical inputs within NATO territory. According to Sjöblom, true security of supply requires rebuilding every link of the chain in Europe, not just final assembly.
Sjöblom previously founded Minna Technologies, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2024. His move into defense manufacturing coincided with Sweden’s accession to NATO and was driven by what he identified as a structural weakness in Europe’s defense industrial base, particularly limited access to explosives required for large-caliber ammunition.
Last month, Swebal signed a letter of intent to supply domestically produced TNT to Scandinavian X, a Swedish-Ukrainian joint venture developing drone systems. The agreement signals early downstream demand and directly links upstream explosives production to wartime manufacturing needs tied to Ukraine.
Swebal’s initiative mirrors broader efforts across Europe to rebuild the defense industrial base as the war in Ukraine and rising NATO spending targets expose vulnerabilities in domestic supply chains. In Estonia, the government has selected companies to develop facilities at a new defense industry park in Pärnumaa focused on mines, explosives, and ammunition components, with longer-term ambitions to attract large-caliber munitions manufacturing.
Despite renewed momentum, progress remains uneven. Much recent investment has flowed into defense software and advanced systems rather than the heavy industrial manufacturing required for energetics and ammunition. Sjöblom has argued that this imbalance previously slowed the recovery of Europe’s explosives sector, but that conditions are now changing. NATO members have committed to higher defense spending, with targets at or above 3.5 percent of GDP for core military needs over the next decade, creating stronger demand signals and political backing for capital-intensive projects.
Swebal’s private ownership is another differentiator. Without the short-term pressures faced by publicly listed firms, the company says it can pursue longer-term planning and accept higher upfront risk to build durable production capacity that larger incumbents may be reluctant to undertake.
The Nora project highlights a strategic shift in how Europe approaches defense resilience. By investing in energetics rather than focusing solely on final assembly, Europe begins to address one of the least visible yet most consequential bottlenecks in ammunition production. The facility would reduce reliance on a single European producer and overseas imports, strengthen NATO’s internal supply chains, and link explosives manufacturing directly to emerging systems such as drones. If successful, the project could serve as a template for rebuilding other neglected segments of Europe’s defense industrial base, underscoring that credible rearmament depends as much on chemicals and heavy industry as it does on advanced weapons platforms.