TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) has joined the ranks of the world’s 100 largest weapons makers, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Monday (Dec. 5).

It was the first time a Taiwanese company appeared in the rankings due to its selling of arms with a total value of US$2 billion (NT$61 billion) in 2021, the report noted, placing NCSIST at No. 60.

The data were based on publicly available information, and not on figures supplied by the military-run company, the Liberty Times reported. The development of new missile systems with orders placed by Taiwan’s military will see its operating income surge to US$4 billion in 2023, making sure NCSIST will place even higher on future lists. The company has been producing about 350 missiles of different types per year.

The SIPRI list also included five arms makers from Japan, four from South Korea, and eight from China. While global arms sales rose by 1.9% from 2020, the industry is likely to face supply chain problems this year, partly because Russia is a major supplier of certain types of raw materials used in the manufacturing of armaments, SIPRI noted.