The South African state-owned defense conglomerate Denel Land Systems has recently experienced a large rise in sales which have maxed out its production facilities, African defense website DefenceWeb reports. According to DefenceWeb’s article, most of the increase in recent sales have been from small lot sales to the Middle East.

Denel’s recent uptick in sales is significant, as the South African state megacorporation had been having problems with solvency during first half of the 2010s. In March 2010, Denel posted a loss of more than 20 million USD (284 million South African Rand), mostly due to interest on its debt.

Denel Land Systems is the military ground products division of the wider Denel SOC Ltd., which was formerly a subsidiary of the South African defense company Armscor (not to be confused with the US firearms importer of the same name). In the early 1990s, towards the end of Apartheid-era South Africa, Armscor was absorbed into the South African government as the procurement arm of the then-South African Defence Force, and Denel spun off from the manufacturing divisions of the former Armscor. Today, the broader Denel makes everything from missiles to aircraft to firearms, with the Land Systems division making systems like armored fighting vehicles, artillery, and small arms. Recently, Denel Land Systems introduced the lightweight multicaliber DMG-5 machine gun, replacing its existing SS-77 machine gun.

Thanks to Tom for the tip!