Arquus, a French company that manufactures land vehicles for military use, has run into contractual problems.

The French manufacturer saw earnings drop to around €550 million in 2022 from €569 million ($620 million) a year earlier.

The earning figures were originally revealed by the company CEO, during a March 23 Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs and Defense hearing.

40% of annual turnover was from after-sales services but detailed “a disappointing” return of €100 million from export sales.

Arquus is one of three companies involved in the joint development and production of the next generation of French Army wheeled armored vehicles — the Griffon, Jaguar and Serval.

Also, at the Arquus plant in Limoges the chassis of the CAESAR self-propelled howitzers are manufactured, with one leaving the lines every four days.

“We could make one a day, but that’s not the order we have,” says Emmanuel Levacher, CEO of Arquus.

France, which delivered 30 CAESARs to Ukraine, has placed an order for a batch of 18 such self-propelled howitzers manufactured by Nexter.

In 2023, two more batches of CAESAR chassis of 18 units should be produced and that’s it.

“It’s not much. The new law foresees a goal of 109 CAESARs by 2030, it would be good if we received an order for 109 trucks, not 12, then 15, etc.,” Emmanuel Levacher said.

Arquus wants to avoid this “work stoppage” at all costs, because “resuming production”, reforming operators and restarting suppliers is always a challenge.

As previously reported, in January the French company NEXTER reported on record orders in 2022 for its CAESAR self-propelled howitzers.