War in Ukraine causing global TNT shortage

Published September 1, 2025 8:09pm ET



The war in Ukraine has consumed so much TNT that there is a global shortage of the explosive.

The United States has relied on TNT, or trinitrotoluene, for military and civil mining as well as construction. Previously cheap and plentiful, an investigation by the New York Times found that the global supply has been redirected for Russia and Ukraine’s war machines, cutting off TNT exports and leaving the U.S. facing a worrying shortage.

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