World arms sales hit $531B in 2020

ANKARA

Marking the sixth consecutive year of growth, sales by the world's top 100 arms producers reached $531 billion in 2020 with the US taking a 54% share, according to an international think tank on Monday.

Sales of arms and military services by the industry’s 100 largest companies increased 1.3% compared with the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report.

The US continued hosting the highest number of companies ranked in the top 100 as the arms sales of 41 US companies totaled $285 billion with a rise of 1.9% year-on-year.

Since 2018, the top five companies in the ranking have all been based in the US, the report underlined.

Accounting for 13% of the total, the arms sales of five Chinese companies included in the top 100 rose 1.5% to $66.8 billion in the same period.

The UK companies made up the third-largest share in the last year's figure as their arms sales hit $37.5 billion in 2020, up by 6.2% compared to 2019.

Russian companies' arms sales decreased by 6.5% on an annual basis, reaching $26.4 billion last year.

"This marks a continuation of the downward trend observed since 2017, when arms sales by Russian companies in the Top 100 peaked," the report read.

Meanwhile, Aselsan was the only Turkish defense industry company, ranking 51st, in the top 100 with arms sales worth $2.2 billion in 2020 -- a surge of 12% in comparison to the previous year.