High Interest Rates Also Blamed: Armco Profits Drop 75 Percent
Armco Inc., a diversified metals and resources concern, said yesterday its first-quarter profits fell To percent from a year earlier, mainly because of the recession.</br></br>Armco. 51st largest l/.S. firm in sales, according to the L981 Fortune 500 list, said profits fell to $17.7 million (26 cents a share) from $69.7 million ($1.21) a year earlier. Sales edged up to $1.65 billion from $1.60 billion.</br></br>Besides the recession. Armen attributed its results to high interest rates, the oil glut and a substantial increase in imports of steel products, including carbon steels stainless steels and oil-country tubular goods.</br></br>EARN, From D6 BankAmerica Corp.reported yesterday that earnings before securities transactions rose 3.4 percent from the year-ago period, while Chase Manhattan Corp. reported a jump of 58percent in the- first three months of 1982.</br></br>BankAmerica, San Francisco-based' holding company for the nationÛªs largest bank, earned $115.7 million (78 cents) before securities transactions, compared with earnings of $111.8 million (76 cents) a year ago.	,	'