RIA Oreanda, Russia
March 11 2009

Rusal Armenal Foil Mill Reaches Design Capacity

Moscow. OREANDA-NEWS . On 11 March 2009 UC RUSAL, the worlds largest
aluminium and alumina producer, is pleased to announce that ARMENAL,
the groups foil mill located in Armenia, reached its design capacity
of 25,000 tonnes.

>From December 2008, the daily output of aluminium foil at the mill
increased by half. It became possible due to a comprehensive
modernisation of the principal parts of equipment and implementation
of advanced foil production technologies. Since the beginning of 2007
when the modernisation was completed, ARMENAL has produced and sold a
total of approximately 30,000 tonnes of finished goods.

The production facility has developed and implemented a new process
policy, significantly enhanced labour discipline, created conditions
for further usage of the modernised equipment design capacity and made
every effort to improve its organisational structure and means to
motivate and deploy the personnel in brief, it has laid a foundation
for success over a long-term period, said Sergey Borovik, ARMENALs
General Director.

The fact that the metal working cash cost reduced by 42% in December
2008 vs. July 2008 indicates the increased efficiency of ARMENAL. The
KPIs increased together with salaries by almost 13% in Q2 2008
compared to Q1 2008. The changes in the salary fund and headcount
optimisation allowed demonstrating such results.

In late 2008, representatives of the largest European traders visited
ARMENAL as they wanted to learn more about the upgraded foil
production and check the quality of foil products. After the meeting
the experts noted that the products of the mill were in line with the
highest international standards.

Currently, ARMENALs foil is undergoing several tests to see whether it
complies with the specifications of European customers. So far,
positive preliminary results have been obtained.

In the near future the foil mill will expand its sales geography from
the EU countries and the USA to the Middle East and Africa.

Despite the fact that the global demand for primary aluminium is
falling, foil products still remain in demand in virtually every area
of their application. Reaching the design capacity of ARMENAL will
allow RUSALs Packaging Division to satisfy demand for rolled foil
products which is growing among other reasons because of the reduction
of foil production in North America. At the same time this year
ARMENAL plans to increase production of extra thin foil with a width
of 7-9 micron by 25% which is in a strong demand in the market.