DEMAND FOR TIN CANS IN THE U.S.A. OVERFLOWS

The pandemic has brought many changes and one of them is the increase in demand for canned food and beverages. The manufacturers were not prepared. Demand has significantly outstripped supply, especially in countries such as the United States.

Net sales of beverage packaging increased 7% in 2020 compared to 2019 in the North American country. Comparable operating profit in that segment increased 23% to $683 million.

This has brought imbalances, as you might expect, so much so that Ball Corp, the leading U.S. can maker, is failing to keep up with demand.

“We have limited capacity right now,” said John Hayes, chief executive officer of Ball Corp. “So, if you’re a non-carbonated water company that’s thinking about buying cans, it’s very tight.” It is because of this, say analysts at Food Processing, that Ball is increasing investments in capacity.

According to this media, capacities are being increased in some plants of this group. According to the US media The Ticker at the end of 2020, German brewers have been nervous about the situation, which still has no short-term solution in 2021. “The pandemic has only accelerated a demand crisis for cans that has been forecast since before 2020. The U.S. market alone is projecting a shortfall of more than 10 billion cans this year, and it is estimated that balancing demand could take beyond 2021.” Ball Corp’s president and CEO goes much further: “even though industry capacity is online, we see demand continuing to outstrip supply well into 2023”.

What happened? It’s simply that consumers no longer drink beers on tap like they used to before the pandemic. They no longer go to bars and restaurants. Now they are confined and drink canned beer. So much so, in fact, that the United States is experiencing serious difficulties with supplies of 12-ounce cans.