American police agencies have always required that a company bidding have an American site. Taurus only recently moved in that direction. Then, you have to overcome the prejudice inherent in an agency's history. If they've been using Glock, Glock will allow a trade-in of their old arms, and the resulting price is pretty close to actual cost. Same with S&W, HK, Sig, and others.
The large police departments also lot contracts for thousands of pistols, with the clause that allows them to increase the order. That's economy of scale at work in the resulting price. These contracts require spare parts, magazines, and armorer training. A new company to this field has a LOT to overcome. As to how many rounds are required, that's a mis-leading figure. 190 pistols, firing 228,000 rounds is an average of 1200 rounds per pistol. Far less than the two thousand rounds in question in the article. Simple math determines that.
Brazilian PDs used Taurus for decades, until IMBEL, the government factory, managed to convince the powers that be that they should be the primary supplier. Now, Taurus is producing the PT1911, a .45 ACP rendering of the 9mm Brazilian military handgun. We'll see.