Ukraine world’s 4th largest arms exporter in 2012, according to SIPRI

Three largest suppliers of major conventional weapons in 2012 were the United States ($8.760 billion), Russia ($8.003 billion), and China ($1.783 billion).

The top ten also includes Germany ($1.193 billion), which placed fifth after Ukraine, France ($1.139 billion), the United Kingdom ($863 million), Italy ($847 million), the Netherlands ($760 million), and Spain ($720 million).

Ukraine exported weapons worth $3.087 billion in 2008–2012 and placed 9th in the SIPRI ranking.

The five largest suppliers of major conventional weapons during the five-year period 2008–2012 were the United States ($40.495 billion), Russia ($35.184 billion), Germany ($9.919 billion), France ($8.042 billion) and China ($6.462 billion).

They were followed by the United Kingdom ($4.997 billion), Spain ($4.036 billion), Italy ($3.159 billion) and Israel ($3.087 billion).

According to Ukraine’s state-owned arms exporter Ukrspecexport, the sales of Ukrspecexport and its subsidiaries from export and import operations in 2012 climbed by 2% from 2011, to $1.024 billion.

“The volume of trade and mediation operations by the state company and its subsidiaries in 2012 was estimated at $1.024 billion, which was almost $20 million up on sales in 2011 and is the best performance over Ukrspecexport’s 16 years of work,” the company said.

Supplies to Asian countries accounted for 47% of exports, the share of African countries was 23%, that of the CIS countries 21%, Europe 6%, and the Americas 3%.

Currently, Ukrspecexport has contracts with 78 countries.

“India, Iraq, China, Thailand and Russia are Ukraine’s largest partners in the sphere of military and technical cooperation,” the company said.

According to previous reports by the company, the portfolio of its orders for the next three to five years is estimated at more than $5 billion.