► Sweden’s Land and Environmental Court grants permit to build the country’s first TNT production facility since the Cold War

[STOCKHOLM, 17 DECEMBER 2025] SWEBAL has today received permit approval from Sweden’s Land and Environmental Court, marking a major milestone in the establishment of Europe’s first TNT production facility in decades. The ruling follows a detailed regulatory review and clears the path for construction of the plant.

The decision represents a significant victory for Sweden and European defence readiness, surpassing the bureaucratic obstacles that have long slowed munitions output. With this approval, SWEBAL can now initiate construction in 2026 and remains on schedule to deliver full-scale TNT output by 2028.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte claimed in November that the alliance is finally outpacing Russia in munitions production. But that headline overlooks a fundamental issue: Europe cannot reliably sustain higher output unless the raw materials and energetics behind every shell are also produced inside NATO territory. SWEBAL’s TNT facility directly addresses this upstream bottleneck and is one of the few projects in Europe capable of turning NATO’s stated ambition into durable, sovereign capacity.

Once operational, the TNT plant will run 24hrs per day, adopting a streamlined production process known as ‘continuous nitration’; with 50 employees adhering to rigorous Swedish safety standards. Material, machinery and production for the facility will be sourced within a radius of 550 kilometers, with SWEBAL’s supply chain being concentrated around the Baltic Sea. As a result, the facility will remove long-distance dependencies and ensure continuous, local production, enabling a long-term and reliable expansion in the production of explosive munitions.

Joakim Sjöblom, SWEBAL’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer says: “This approval is more than a green light for construction. It’s a fundamental shift in Europe’s ability to secure its own defence supply chain. To achieve true security of supply, we must bring every part of the chain – not just assembly – back inside Europe and inside NATO territory. Today’s decision means Sweden can now build the TNT capacity that makes that possible. We’re ready to break ground and take the next major step toward a stronger, more resilient and self-reliant Europe”.