New Armenal management could start presale preparation 

ArmInfo. Despite negotiations on the sale of the Armenal foil rolling plant, its parent structure,  the Russian company Rusal, decided to replace the director of the Armenian subsidiary. Arthur Zakaryan was replaced as CEO of the company by Maxim Karamanov, sent from Russia.

Earlier the media circulated information that the Tashir group of  companies (owner Samvel Karapetyan) is considering the possibility of  acquiring the Armenal plant, which, due to Western sanctions against  Rusal, has been operating at a loss for a year and a half.  Information about the negotiation process was leaked to the media.  However, neither the Minister of Economy of Armenia Gevorg Papoyan  nor representatives of Tashir have yet commented on this issue.

In particular, in early July, summing up the results of his 100-day  activity as Minister of Economy, Gevorg Papoyan said that despite  high production volumes, the plant has certain problems with sales  markets due to Western sanctions against Russia and specifically the  Rusal company. Without disclosing any details, Papoyan noted that  business negotiations are currently underway, and any comments can  only get in the way. "But we are doing and will do everything  possible so that tomorrow and in the future such industrial capacity  and an important asset of the country as Armenal will work in our  country," Papoyan emphasized.

Independent observers, meanwhile, believe that the change of the  general director of the enterprise and the commercial director is not  able to affect the financial condition of Armenal, since there are  circumstances of force majeure - sanctions. Therefore, we can assume  that the new plant management sent from Moscow will most likely be  involved in its pre-sale preparation.

According to the Statistics Committee, the production of aluminum  foil in Armenia in January-May 2024.  significantly accelerated the  decline from 9.3% to 32%, amounting to 8,271.1 thousand tons.