The Romanian defense industry has the capacity to produce between 6,000 and 20,000 artillery shells 300,000 to 55 million rounds of ammunition and up to 245,000 tons of explosives in TNT equivalent per year The Romanian defense industry is now being prepared to produce its own 155-mm shells and expand its explosives production capacity. This is reported by Defense Romania According to the authors of the publication Romanian government officials have successfully completed the expropriation of the Victoria gunpowder plant near the city of Brașov the facility will begin expanding its existing production capacity and resuming gunpowder production "jointly with a European manufacturer" the name of which has not yet been disclosed The Romanian authorities have previously announced that this plant will become Europe's largest gunpowder production facility with an investment of 2.5 billion Romanian lei (USD half a million) the Romanian state budget for 2025 includes 125 million euros for the modernization of TNT and hexogen production lines at a plant near the city of Făgăraș.This project should be completed by the end of this year It is also known that Romanians produce 5.56 mm and 14.5 mm caliber small arms at the Cugir plant while 5.54 mm and 7.62 mm caliber ammunition is produced at the UM Sadu plant As for the plans to produce 155-mm shells in Romania production is set to begin at the facilities of the Mechanical Plant in Plopeni The project is budgeted at 100 million Romanian lei (USD 21.6 million) and the direct production of 155-mm shells is expected to start in the second quarter of 2026 Earlier, Defense Express reported that the Romanians had had second thoughts after their tenderless F-16 purchase when they could have gotten Gripen Ploiesti being the capital of all oil-related activities in Romania and one of the most important centers of petrochemical technology With the help of Prahova Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIPH) and its President Aurelian Gogulescu we have conducted an analysis of Prahova economy with a focus on the advantages attracting companies in this area Currently, 4 refineries operate in Romania – Petrobrazi, Vega, Petrotel-Lukoil and Petromidia, of which the first 3 are within the municipality of Ploiesti. Also, the Petroleum-Gas University the only one with this profile in South-Eastern Europe In Prahova there are 24,250 active companies registered with the Trade Register most of them (41.14%) activating in the industrial sector The surface of the county is 4,716 km2 (2% of the country’s surface) which leads to a density of 169 inhabitants/km2 Prahova having 2 cities (Ploiesti and Campina) The oil industry accounts for 22% of the economic activity of the county and 65% of the turnover of the industrial sector The 772 companies in the field have a total turnover of RON 11.9 billion (EUR 2.53 billion) obtained with the 15,000 employees (10% of the employees of companies) According to the President of Prahova Chamber of Commerce and Industry “Prahova ranked among the top three counties at national level in terms of value of the Gross Domestic Product our county is among the top 10 counties of Romania in terms of contribution to national export even if not at the same level as in the past years at a time when the issue of energy security at national European and global level overlaps an economic and financial situation that many characterize as being on the verge of a new crisis” In a ranking of the counties of Romania according to the value of the Gross Domestic Product Prahova is the third county after Constanta and Cluj “Another important challenge is the labour force crisis CCI Prahova has organized in the last two years a number of actions to identify solutions together with all the factors involved or the impacted companies The immediate solution to diminish the effects of this crisis is import of workforce to which many Prahova-based companies have already resorted,” Aurelian Gogulescu explains The main arguments that attract foreign investors in the oil industry in Prahova County are: In Prahova there are 5 industrial parks with public administration: Ploiesti Industrial Park (with 4 locations – Ploiesti Barcanesti Industrial Park (Administrator: Prahova County Council) Prahova Industrial Park (Administrator: Valenii de Munte Local Council) and 5 industrial parks with private administration: Allianso Business Park the exports made by the companies from Prahova County totaled EUR 2.43 billion which represents 3.5% of Romania’s exports (EUR 67.73 billion) accounting for 4.6% of Romania’s import (EUR 82.86 billion) The main partners of Prahova County for the export activity were: Italy (19%) the United Kingdom (6.2%) and the Republic of Moldova (4.7%) The main products and services exported by Prahova-based oil companies were: oil drilling equipment: offshore and onshore; valves Other chemicals and petrochemicals were exported – car LPG meta-bisulphite in the Republic of Moldova Other export benchmarks are: heavy bearings (India engineering services in the oil and gas industry – design technical studies in the field of oil and natural gas All of the above make us believe that the oil industry has a good future in Romania and Prahova will continue to be ‘the Capital of black gold’ a subsidiary of the Romanian National Company for Military Technique Romarm will start to produce Beretta assault weapons in about six months Production will start based on a memorandum of understanding signed on June 10 with the Italian company Beretta Holding, economy minister Niculae Badalau said at the signing of the document, Romania Insider reads The modernization and re-tooling of the plant will require an estimated investment of EUR 6.5 million The Romanian state will hold 80 percent of the joint venture through the Plopeni company while Beretta Holding will hold the remaining 20 percent 15 percent of the parts needed to produce the weapons will be produced in Romania but the share of domestic components will increase as the factory’s capacity will also grow