We are watching you closely, Impress boss tells tinplate mills

The Canmaker: "We are watching you closely, Impress boss tells tinplate mills

December 8: The boss of a leading canmaking company has told tinplate suppliers to “recognise the current economic cycle in their pricing” and to provide a supply service that matches recent dramatic price increases."

Francis Labbé, chief executive of Impress Metal Packaging, the world’s leading producer of cans for sea foods and one of the leaders in food and industrial cans in Europe, said that disruptions in the supply of tinplate had resulted from mill capacity cuts and the diversion of raw materials away from tinplate products.

Yet as tinplate prices had increased by between 50 and 80 percent, canmakers’ customers in the food and drinks industries had seen input costs falling, he said.

Labbé warned that he would be watching how the tinplate mills would be managing their supply chain and pricing. “We are monitoring their positions closely,” he said.