By Mark Dovich
Armenia’s sole aluminum foil manufacturer named a new general director earlier this month, as the plant continues to operate at a loss following a string of Western punitive measures on its Russian parent company.
Maxim Karamanov replaces Artur Zakaryan as CEO, Armenal announced on July 18.
“Based on the results for the first half of 2024, Rusal Armenal CJSC remains unprofitable. Taking this into account, a number of scenarios for the enterprise’s further operations are under consideration, including applying for state support and subsidies, restructuring, reducing production, and others,” the company said in a press release.
Additional details were not made immediately available.
Observers say Karamanov’s appointment is unlikely to stem Armenal’s accelerating losses. A subsidiary of the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, Armenal was once Armenia’s single biggest exporter to the United States.
The company, however, was pushed into the red after being slapped with a number of punitive measures, starting with U.S. sanctions in 2018, followed by U.S. antidumping duties and increased EU tariffs in 2021. Most recently in April, the influential London Metal and Chicago Mercantile Exchanges banned trading in Russian metals.
From 2022 to 2023, Armenia’s aluminum exports fell by more than 36%, trade figures from the country’s Statistical Committee show. The numbers do not distinguish between aluminum foil and other aluminum products.
Armenal has not made the scale of its losses public.
At a press conference earlier this month marking his 100th day in office, Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan revealed his agency is in talks to rescue Armenal.
“We are doing and we will do everything possible so that an enterprise with such an industrial capacity, so that such an important asset as Armenal, will operate in our country tomorrow and in the future,” Papoyan was quoted as saying by the ArmInfo news site.
He did not comment on growing speculation in the local business community that may involve brokering a deal to spin off Armenal from Rusal.
Armenal paid nearly $4.3 million in taxes in Armenia last year, according to Armenia’s State Revenue Committee, and employs hundreds of people at its flagship factory in suburban Yerevan.
