Producer
Eurenco
French-Swedish defense company; primary European nitrocellulose and propellant supplier for NATO; facilities in Bergerac (France), Clermont (Belgium), Karlskoga (Sweden); restarted Bergerac nitrocellulose production in March 2024 after years dormant — direct response to EU ammunition shortage for Ukraine
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Nitrocellulose (NC) Production
30%Smokeless Propellants (NATO Supply)
35%High Explosives (TNT, RDX, HMX)
22%Industrial Nitrocellulose & Specialty Chemistry
13%
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Did you know2023
Eurenco's industrial nitrocellulose (lower-nitrogen content grades, 11.5-12.2%N) is used both in smokeless propellant manufacturing AND as the membrane substrate in lateral flow assay (LFA) diagnostic tests — including COVID-19 rapid antigen tests, pregnancy tests, flu tests, and virtually all point-of-care rapid diagnostics. Nitrocellulose membranes are the critical component of every lateral flow assay: the NC membrane's pore structure controls how the liquid sample migrates across the test strip and how antibody-antigen binding is visualized. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nitrocellulose membrane supply became a critical bottleneck for rapid test manufacturing. The European defense propellant and explosives supply chain and the global rapid diagnostic supply chain share the same raw material — nitrocellulose — from the same producers.
Eurenco SA ↗Origin2023
Eurenco was formed from the merger of SNPE (Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs — French state gunpowder manufacturer dating to Napoléon-era facilities) and Bofors Explosives (Sweden). Bofors Explosives traces to Nobel Industrier and the original Bofors factory in Karlskoga — Alfred Nobel's manufacturing base when he invented dynamite in 1867. The Nobel Prize itself was funded by Alfred Nobel's fortune, derived from Bofors and its explosives patents. Eurenco Bofors in Karlskoga thus operates on the physical site from which the Nobel Prize wealth originated — a European defense propellant company is the material heritage of the world's most prestigious science and peace awards.
Eurenco SA ↗Capacity2024
Eurenco restarted nitrocellulose production at its Bergerac, France facility in March 2024 after the plant had been dormant for years — a direct consequence of NATO's recognition that European defense industrial base had insufficient NC production capacity for sustained artillery warfare. The restart was funded with French government support and involved significant capital investment to bring decades-idle equipment back to production standards. The Bergerac restart is symbolic of a broader pattern: 30 years of post-Cold War European defense industrial contraction (closing, mothballing, and privatizing state defense factories) left NATO critically dependent on US Radford AAP as essentially the only large-scale military-grade NC producer in the transatlantic alliance. Russia's Ukraine invasion reversed this contraction — European governments are now directly investing in reopening defense industrial facilities that market economics had closed.
Eurenco SA ↗Incident2024
Eurenco restarted nitrocellulose production at its Bergerac, France facility in March 2024 — a production line that had been dormant for years — explicitly to address the NATO ammunition shortage for Ukraine. This is one of a very small number of active European smokeless powder production facilities. Europe battles a propellant shortage driven by decades of post-Cold War capacity reductions and the abrupt rearmament demand from the Ukraine war.
Eurenco ↗