In 1981, GARMCO was established as a joint venture between the governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.

Kaiser Engineering, USA, constructed the plant and the machinery was installed by Kobe Steel who also undertook the start-up operation and the training of local staff at one of their aluminium plants in Japan.

The shareholders of GARMCO are: Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company B.S.C (c) (37.29%), Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (30.40%), Industrial Bank of Kuwait (16.98%), Gulf Investment Corporation (5.90%), Republic of Iraq (4.71%), Sultanate of Oman (2.36%) and Qatar Holding Company L.L.C (2.36%).

The first 20,000 tonnes of rolled aluminium rolled out in 1986. Today, we are the largest downstream aluminium facility in the Arabian Gulf region and in the Middle East.

Although the original facility had an annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes, investment in new equipment, a second cold-rolling mill and subsequent upgrade of related facilities has raised the production to 165,000 tonnes. A foil mill installation commenced operations in 2000 and currently produces 35,000 tonnes per year.

Inspired by GARMCO's success in export markets, it was decided to set up an overseas division, with the first sales office opening in Hong Kong in 1991. Since then we have grown to be a leader in the aluminium downstream sector with offices spread across the world in Australia, Europe, Far-East, Middle East, and North America.