Norway with gas, South Korea with weapons: those who do business thanks to the war

Norway, golden business with gas exports to Europe

War is not an economic catastrophe for everyone. There are not only those who fear for the supply of energy, or those who are afraid of seeing their national territory torn to shreds. No, there are also those who seem to gain something. And we don’t just talk about the usual suspects, from Azerbaijan to Algeria for their gas wealth or perhaps according to some of the United States which increase the sale of arms. No, besides them there are also two perhaps unexpected cases of countries that are firmly in the sphere of liberal democracies: Norway and South Korea.

Norway is doing rich business thanks to gas exports. Providing energy to Europe has always been profitable for Norway, the world’s fourth largest exporter of natural gas. It has become so sensationally since Russia, once its rival in keeping Europe warm, turned off the taps. As the war and the resulting energy crisis drag on, the sums flowing north are proving “embarrassing”, as the Economist called them, even launching a torpedo in Oslo: “A place that holds its image as a force for good in the world must reject accusations of war profit. “

In a normal year, sales of oil, gas and electricity bring in over $ 50 billion for Norway. But now, thanks to the war, Norway’s energy export revenues have soared at a pace of more than $ 200 billion annually.. Were it not for the fact that Norway has decided to put this money aside in a sovereign wealth fund, at these prices every Norwegian could receive an annual check worth around $ 40,000, roughly the European Union’s GDP per capita. .

Norway took advantage of the crisis for two things. The first: stop the rhetoric of abandoning fossil fuels as quickly as possible. On the contrary, it has increased gas production as much as possible, even suppressing union strikes to keep energy flowing. On the other, obviously, by increasing exports to European neighbors both from a quantitative and a cost point of view. Now, however, pressure is starting to be felt on Norway to donate part of its earnings to the rest of a Europe in great difficulty.

South Korea exports arms to Europe

Going far east, however, there is also another country that is doing business with the war: South Korea. And it is an absolute novelty, at least on the European market. A few weeks ago, Nikkei Asia reports, Poland announced that it has entered into an agreement with South Korean Hyundai Rotem. The move was surprising, as it marked only the second major arms purchase by a NATO member from a supplier outside the bloc. In 2017, Turkey bought an air defense system from Russia in a highly controversial move.

Poland announced the purchase of 1,000,000 K2 Black Panther tanks from Hyundai Rotem, a defense subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group. Hyundai Rotem will shortly supply 180 of the armored vehicles, known for their powerful 120mm smoothbore guns, automatic reloading systems and speeds of up to 70km / h. The rest will be built in the Eastern European country starting in 2026. The agreement shows how South Korean defense companies are expanding into Europe, where military spending is on the rise following the invasion of Ukraine by the Russia. But it’s not just on the continent that companies are making sparks.

The proposal to Poland came at the right time: Warsaw was looking to replace them after delivering 250 Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine. The Poles had considered Krauss-Maffei Wegmann’s Leopard 2, the pillar of NATO’s European armed forces, including the Polish one. But the Eastern European country is believed to have been put off by the long delivery times.

The number of tanks foreseen by the agreement with the South Koreans far exceeds that of the contract that Warsaw signed in April for the purchase of 250 M1A2 Abrams tanks from the United States. According to analysts, a key attraction of the deal with South Korea, which also includes other weapons, it is the prospect of technology transfers that could allow Poland to become a European arms manufacturing pole.

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