Rio Ammunition, now Rio Outdoors Corp, manufactures shotgun shells at a factory in Spain and Italy. This former subsidiary of the Spanish explosives firm MAXAM, a member of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI).[1] MAXAM originated as Unión Española de Explosivos (UEE) in 1896, and began marketing shotgun ammunition in the United States in 2002.[2] The Rio Ammunition plant in McEwen, Tennessee, was damaged by an explosion in 2014.[3] The Texas factory began operations in 2015 loading locally manufactured shotgun shells with smokeless powder, wads, primers, and shot manufactured in Vitoria-Gasteiz.[4] The labor pool for the Texas manufacturing site includes skilled personnel formerly employed at the nearby Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant closed in 1997.[5] Rio Outdoors produces conventional target and hunting ammunition plus specialized cartridges for law enforcement use. Non-lead hunting cartridges are loaded with steel or bismuth shot. Combined production of factories in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Turkey is estimated at 500,000,000 shotgun shells annually.[6]
