Defense and aerospace companies took their investors away

Agreements made, tenders won, good balance sheets, and acquisitions were supportive factors for the shares of defense and aerospace companies.

The world’s leading defense and aerospace companies blew their investors away by making gains in the stock markets in the first quarter of the year.

Raytheon, a subsidiary of RTX Corporation, has signed a $1.2 billion contract to supply Patriot air and missile defense systems to Germany.

Rheinmetall AG, on the other hand, completed the 2023 fiscal year with a strong performance. The company’s sales increased by 12 percent to 7.2 billion euros during this period.

On the other hand, the Japanese government’s easing of strict rules for exporting defense equipment to overseas countries was a supportive factor for Mitsubishi Heavy’s shares. This step of the Japanese government paved the way for the overseas sales of the new fighter jet, which is planned to be jointly produced by England, Italy and Japan until 2035.

Experts from Mitsubishi Heavy from Japan, BAE Systems from England and Leonardo from Italy, which are the main contractors in the fighter jet project, are on the coordination board. Within the scope of the “Global Combat Air Program” announced to the public in December 2022, the coordination board aims to complete the design of the combat aircraft by 2027.

Hanwha Aerospace also won the howitzer tender opened by Romania in January and reached an agreement on a contract worth 751 million dollars.

Italian Leonardo earned more than 55 percent for its investors

In the first quarter of the year, the shares of Italian Leonardo were 55.8 percent, the shares of British BAE Systems were 21.5 percent, the shares of French Thales were 18 percent, the shares of European-based multinational aviation company Airbus were 15.5 percent, the shares of French company Airbus were 15.5 percent, Shares of Dassault Aviation gained 13.8 percent in value.

Last month, Leonardo was awarded the right to take part in the EU research program Metallic Additive Manufacturing for High Performance (MAM4HP) on additive manufacturing.

On the other hand, Japan Airlines (JAL) announced that it would purchase 21 Airbus wide-body A350-900 passenger aircraft between the 2025-2033 financial years. The number of aircraft delivered by Airbus also increased by 12 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year, reaching 142.

Dassault Aviation, on the other hand, generated over $5 billion in revenue in 2023.

Other US-based companies also generally gained on the stock markets

US-based companies General Dynamics earned 8.8 percent, Northrop Grumman 2.2 percent, L3 Harris Technologies 1.2 percent, and Lockheed Martin 0.4 percent for its investors.

General Dynamics signed a $922 million contract to organize the information technology infrastructure of the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

Northrop Grumman has signed a memorandum of understanding with German Weapons manufacturer Diehl Defense covering a study to verify the possibility of connecting Diehl Defense’s land-based air defense systems to Northrop Grumman’s integrated combat command system.

Lockheed Martin predicted that its sales will reach between $68.5 billion and $70 billion in 2024, an increase compared to last year.

On the other hand, in the first quarter of the year, the shares of Chinese China Aerospace International Holdings Limited lost 4.8 percent and the shares of US Boeing lost 26 percent.