Russia’s trade representative office in Tajikistan has reportedly expressed readiness to provide support to the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO).

According to the Russian Minitry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), issues related to industrial collaboration between Russian and Tajik economic entities has been discussed at a meeting of the Trade Representative to Tajikistan Yevgeny Korenkov with Igor Sattarov, Head of the TALCO Department for Information and Public Relations.   

In the course of the talks, the two reportedly discussed the possibility of participation of Russia in implementation of investment projects in Tajikistan.  

Korenkov and Sattarov also discussed the issue of the supply of Russian innovative freight cars to Tajikistan for the Tajik aluminum smelter on concessional financing terms, the MoIT press center noted.  

The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) is one of the ten largest aluminum smelters in the world.  It consumes more than 30 percent of the country’s electrical power.  TALCO is wholly owned by the Tajik government.  Tajikistan does not mine alumina but imports the raw material through tolling arrangements.

Construction of the Tajik aluminum plant (TadAZ) began in 1972, and the first pouring of aluminum took place on March 31, 1975.  THz Tajik aluminum smelter has a rated capacity of 517,000 tons of primary aluminum per year.  On April 3, 2007, TadAZ was officially renamed to TALCO – Tajik Aluminum Company.