Zastava Oruzje exporting USD 7.5 million worth of AK-47s to America – 95% of arrangements for 2017 already made

(Photo: Tyler McKay/shutterstock.com)

The value of the investment is around EUR 2.5 million, of which EUR 2 million were procured through the loan by Srpska Banka with a grace period and a repayment period of two years, whereas the remaining EUR 500,000 have been provided by the factory itself.

— The new equipment will enable the reduction of costs and a stable quality of the products, and so increase the competitiveness of Zastava’s program in the world markets, where arrangements in the value of USD 50 million have been made for this year. This will be sufficient for financing the factory’s operation and making a profit of around five million dollars, said the director of Zastava Oruzje, Milojko Brzakovic.

He mentioned that, in the first six months of 2016, the factory’s production had been 10% larger than in the same period in 2015, and that, from the beginning of the year till May, it had made a profit of RSD 243.5 million.

He also pointed out that Zastava Oruzje was well in the process of making business arrangements for the next year. At the recently held Defense and Security Exhibition Eurosatory 2016 in Paris, an agreement was signed with an American partner, the company Century Arms, on the export of semi-automatic AK-47 rifles (used in America for hunting) in 2017 in the amount of USD 7.5 million.

A new Indian state delegation, interested in buying infantry weapons, will come to the factory on June 20, since the Kragujevac program won one of their last year’s tenders. A day before, representatives of Zastava will attend a demonstration of the technical and shooting potential of India’s ordnance in New Delhi.

Brzakovic claims that Zastava Oruzje had already made 95% of the arrangements planned for 2017, and that the remaining 5% would be agreed on by the end of August.