Published and written by The Canmaker Magazine
Poland-based canmaker Can-Pack SA has revealed plans for its first new beverage can plant to be constructed in Brazil. Last year at the Cannex trade show in Colorado, suppliers said that Can-Pack had been ordering canmaking equipment for up to two plants in Latin America.
Until then Can-Pack’s operations had been confined to Europe, the Middle East and the Philippines.
Then late last year it bought the Metalic Nordeste beverage can plant in north east Brazil at the coastal port of Forteleza from steelmaker CSN in a deal worth nearly US$100m.
Now Stanislaw Wasko, commercial chief at Can-Pack, says that its first completely new plant in Brazil will be constructed at Itumbiara in the state of Goiás, not far from the capital Brazilia.
Planned start-up will be in the fourth quarter of 2017, said Wasko.
It is likely that the plant’s civil engineering and project management will be carried out by US-based Roeslein & Associates, which has been involved with most of the canmaker’s projects in the past.
Also, it is expected to be constructed with space for two D&I production lines, with the first having capacity to make more than 1 billion aluminium cans a year.
With the market recession in Brazil that started in 2014, beverage can demand growth flattened but still reached 25 billion units in 2016. Growth of two percent is expected this year.
There are currently 17 beverage can plants in Brazil, two of which were sold to Ardagh by Ball as a requirement of its acquisition last year of Rexam, which until then had been the largest manufacturer of beverage cans in the country.
Ball is currently the leading beverage can manufacturer in Brazil with 10 plants, Crown second with four, followed by Ardagh with two. Brazil has five end making units, with three operated by Ball and one by Crown.
Can-Pack’s most recent beverage can project is at Helmond in The Netherlands, which started up earlier this year.