Japanese watching Baosteel move on domestic tinplate prices

SteelGuru: "Tex reported that Japan's integrated steelmakers are set to watch how China's Baosteel Co Ltd will settle its domestic sales price of tinplate for shipments in the January to March quarter of 2009. There are forecasts that Baosteel will inform domestic customers November 20th at the earliest of its domestic prices of various steel products for shipments in the first quarter of next year.

At present, most of the world's steel transaction prices are way down. With tinplate bearing closely on foodstuff, though, market conditions for tinplate differ from those for other steel products such as commodity-grade HR coils, hot-dip galvanized sheets, and shapes. As a result, Japanese integrated steelmakers keep attention to how Baosteel will work out its domestic tinplate price for January-March shipments in 2009."

Chinese tinplate prices nosedive

Percy Schneider, 271108: I am subscribed to your weekly Newsletter Tin in the News. I am acting as a business consultant for a tin can maker in Lima, Peru. My client is quite concerned about tinplate prices for 2009. I have followed strictly current trends and your words and comments. Sounds like we are facing a buyer´s market.

For your information, prices in China has dropped dramatically in the last 2 weeks. From my readings, most of the 8 big tinplate (ETP sheets) chinese suppliers, are decreasing prices of about US$ 100 per MT each week. We refer to end user tinplate sheets. Moreover, on November 21st, Chinese Council has eliminated some export taxes on specific steel and tin products in order to reactivate exports due domestic market has plunged a little bit. 

Peter, my 64,000 dollar question will be how deep tinplate sheet market could go down ???? Eager to have your keen comments.

Percy Schneider

Business Consultant

Lima, Peru

Telephone: + 51 1 264 3270

Email: pejurajo@gmail.com

The German tinplate packaging market

EUWID:: "The dominating topic for suppliers of packaging and closures made of tinplate is the development of costs. 

The packaging industry is confronted with a number of cost increases that were recently implemented, eg, sealing compounds, coatings or print. Moreover, participants are faced with increased transport costs, following the increase of fees for lorries travelling on German motorways and increased wages resulting from the last round of negotiations between labour and industrial representatives. Against this backdrop, suppliers of upstream products announced drastic price hikes for tinplate as of January 1, 2009."

Biodegradable PET bottle hits market

packagingnews.co.uk: "Wells Plastics has responded to the challenge set by the Planet Green Bottle Corporation (PGBC) to make a biodegradable plastic bottle with the additive Repete.
PGBC has started accepting orders for the additive, preforms and plastic bottles that have been manufactured so as to render PET oxybiodegradable.

Oxygen, heat and UV light triggers the oxy-biodegration process, which can occur in landfills, ditches, rivers and oceans."

Asia Can Tech 2008 review

cantechonline: I believe in today’s tough economic times that small, cost-effective conferences are extremely important to help can makers keep abreast of the latest developments the industry can provide. 

Our trade has to deal with ever-increasing costs of raw materials, fuel, transport and logistics, as well as currency fluctuations. Therefore, the importance of an efficient manufacturing process takes on a whole new urgency. And that’s why a niche, well targeted technical conference and tabletop exhibition such as Asia CanTech, with our professional venues, excellent networking opportunities and proficient organisation, provides an unmissable prospect. 

We are delighted to be in Kuala Lumpur this year, where Kian Joo takes the lead in Malaysia as a progressive and innovative can maker. The company is hosting two plant tours on Thursday, 4 December and we would like to thank them for their help and co-operation on these visits.

This year, our opening keynote speaker, See Tiau Kee (an executive director of Kian Joo) will be looking at the cost efficiencies of moving from 211 to 200 ends. I will also be looking forward to hearing Teh Kok Lim, (general manager, two-piece, Kian Joo) who will be joining him on stage to talk about can making in Malaysia. Another keynote speaker, Bushen Raina of Tata Tinplate, will be revealing his views on the tinplate market.

On the second day, keynote speakers Jozef Salaerts and Gary Fishlock (Crown Asia Pacific) will discuss Crown Holdings and SuperEnd, and later the same day we invite Simon Jennings (Rexam Beverage Can Asia Pacific) to give us his thoughts on the sustainability of beverage cans 

Indian canmakers condemn import duty on tinplate

Steel Business Briefing: Indian demand for tinplate amounts to almost 400000 tonnes/year, and current domestic production of around 220000 t/y is monopolised by Tata Steel’s...

Fragment from subscription-based service

Atotech to open furthers TechCenter in CZ, Italy, Taiwan & India

evertiq.com: "Atotech has officially opened its new European TechCenter for corrosion protection applications in Trebur, Geinsheim near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Another 4 new TechCenters of this kind will be opened in 2009 in Taiwan, the Czech Republic, India and Italy.

The newly constructed Trebur TechCenter occupies a total area of over 2000 m2 for equipment, laboratory, office and training rooms. It is equipped with a fully automatic plating line for zinc, zinc alloys, phosphate pretreatment and Cr(VI)-free post-treatment processes including auxiliary equipment for environmental sound production and on-line analysis for process control."

Brazilian steel packaging sector grows by 2.6% year-to-date

Factiva:  The Brazilian steel packaging sector grew 2.6% over January to October against a year before, the Brazilian Association of Steel Packaging Manufacturers (Abeaço) informed Tuesday.

The increase was mostly prompted by an over 9% rise in demand for paint cans, as a result of sharp growth in the civil construction sector.

The Brazilian Association of Construction Material Manufacturers (Abramat) expects a 28% rise in earnings this year against 2007, to R$46.2 billion. Last year the sector grew by 15.5%.

Dairy product steel packaging sales also rose sharply this year, by 10%.

Paint cans account for 97% of steel packaging sales, condensed milk cans for 78%, cream cans for 53% an tuna and sardine cans for 99%.

Improving coating resistance to acetic acid sterilisation: An EIS approach

Scopus: In situ EIS spectroscopy was used to evaluate the performance of the inside coating of a deep-drawn polymer-coated steel can during sterilisation and pasteurisation with a 1% acetic acid solution. Acetic acid is a very common ingredient in filling goods and is a particularly aggressive substance for packaging materials.

Using this coating, the formation of corrosion products under the coating decreased and ion transfer to the solution was prevented. A clear relation between coating composition, in situ EIS behaviour and postmortem observations is shown in all three cases. 

In Expedio

High Speed Tin Plating Process

WO08100648A1: "Methods for the electrolytic preparation of tin coated metals are disclosed. The methods comprise the use of an alkanol sulfonic acid electrolyte or a salt thereof, preferably isethionic acid (ISA) as the electrolyte in electroplating operations. An aqueous solution of an alkanol sulfonic acid and/or an alkanol sulfonic acid salt can be used as rinse or flux immediately preceding reflow. The methods of the invention produce plated material that is free of blue haze"

Arkema, US

Lessons Learned? The Steel Industry Hopes So

The State Journal: After a strong third quarter that saw steel-sector companies posting big numbers, fallout from a financial crisis that started in the nation's sub-prime lending market torpedoed the global economy, causing demand for big-ticket items, such as cars, appliances and new construction to plummet.

With demand waning, so have orders. And with fewer orders coming in, steel producers are cutting back: Last week, Steel of West Virginia laid off 52 workers at its Huntington plant until the economy picks up, while AK Steel temporarily idled most operations and hundreds of workers at its plant in Ashland, Ky.

Russian steel giant Severstal, meanwhile, also made changes, keeping furnaces at its Wheeling operation offline and using voluntary layoffs to control costs until the economy recovers.

And while Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, announced a 30 percent scale-back in operations worldwide, the bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture is that workers at the company's Weirton plant will not face additional layoffs, voluntary or not, because its product line -- tin plate, used in food packaging -- historically is a big seller when consumers are anxious.

"Tin plate historically does well during a down economy, and this period does not seem to be an exception," ArcelorMittal spokesman Adam Warrington said.

Crown to close two canmaking plants in Canada

The Canmaker: "More canmaking capacity alignment is being planned in North America.

Yesterday Crown Holdings said that it would be closing plants in Canada in the first quarter of 2009: its beverage can plant at Montreal and a food can plant at Dorval.

The Montreal beverage can plant makes both 12oz and 16oz aluminium drinks cans on one production line with a capacity of 800m.

The move follows a 3-percent decline in soft drinks sales this year that has dented demand for 12oz cans. Other canmakers are closing plants, such as Ball which shut its Kent, Washington, plant recently, and announced the closure of its Kansas City, Missouri and Guayama, Puerto Rico, facilities. Total capacity reduction over the past two years is estimated at more than 5 percent, with older plants being closed."

Indian steel packaging industry hit by new import duty

Business Standard (India): "The recent imposition of five per cent import duty on tinplates, used for manufacturing container packaging, has hit the industry which was already plagued by rising prices of the metal and depreciation of rupee, top sources said today.

The Rs 3,000 crore industry comprising of over 1,000 units, many of whom being small and medium enterprises caters to the packaging requirement of food and beverage companies.

Sanjay Bhatia, vice president, Metal Container Manufacturers' Association told PTI that the last budget had removed the duty on tinplates.

Subsequently, rupee depreciated against dollar by 20 per cent, while the price of tinplate internationally has gone up by about 50 per cent. Now the government has also imposed five per cent import duty, crippling the industry which survives on thin profit margins."

Recovered materials market begins to stabilise

packagingnews.co.uk: "The recycled packaging materials market is beginning to stabilise, but there are still concerns over the length of time it will take to fully recover.
Ian Wakelin, chief executive of recycling firm Greenstar, told Packaging News the firm was seeing the first signs of a 'bottoming out and recovery' in the market and was confident the market would pick up again within three months.

'Last week, we saw prices and demand for all recovered materials go up, although plastics remains a challenge,' he said."

Soft drinks sales decline hits cans

The Canmaker: "The accelerating decline in sales of cans for soft drinks in the US had a marked effect on the total shipments for the third quarter, according to figures revealed by the Can Manufacturers Institute.

Shipments of cans for soft drinks were down 5.7 percent in the three months to the end of September, falling by almost a billion units to 15.9 billion, compared with the same period in 2007. It follows a similar decline in sales of carbonated soft drinks in the US. Cans used for beer were up slightly by 0.1 percent to reach 8.98bn.

In the food can sector, shipments overall were up 1.7 percent in the quarter compared with last year, reaching 8.85bn. The fastest-growing segment was in cans for fruit, which were up 12.6 percent to 657 million. Cans used in the dominant vegetables business were up 4 percent to 3.49bn while soup cans were up 1.9 percent to 1.49bn. Pet food cans were down 5.8 percent to 1.8bn. Aerosol cans were up 0.3 percent to 986m.

The recent improvements in the food can sector helped restore the nine month year-to-date figures which are now down 0.4 percent at just over 22bn.

But slowing demand for soft drinks cans will mean that the year-end total for all cans will be more than two billion units down."

Baosteel active in tinplate exports

SteelGuru: "With limited domestic orders for tinplate, Baosteel is described as responding with its struggle to promote tinplate exports to Southeast Asia and elsewhere such as Latin America and the Middle East. In Southeast Asia, Baosteel is said to be positive in selling into Indonesia and Thailand. As a result, it is understood that Japan's integrated steelmakers face a tough environment for their tinplate exports to Indonesia.

Baosteel is eager to negotiate its tinplate exports to Latin America as well, according to market sources. In this connection, there are signs of falling prices in tinplate supply deals for Latin America, where there are offers of tinplate exports by European steelmakers too. Chinese and European offer prices to Latin America differ much from what Japanese integrated steelmakers recently offered there. The Japanese offers stood at a level of USD 1,300 to USD 1,400 per tonne FOB for October to December 2008 shipments."

Tin plate sheet chromium-free deactivation liquid (CN11104932A)

Tin plate sheet chromium-free deactivation liquid (CN11104932A): "CN11104932A: Tin plate sheet chromium-free deactivation liquid

Chromium-free passivating solution for chemical passivation of electroplated or heat-plated tin plate, contains sodium phosphate, cobalt sulfate, water, in preset weight ratio, and phosphoric acid as pH regulator, and has preset pH"

The invention relates to a Cr-free passivating solution for tinned plates, which contains (by weight parts) trisodium phosphate 20-70, cobalt sulphate 0.5-4, and water 1000. The passivating solution further contains phosphoric acid as pH regulator. The pH value of the passivating solution is 3-5. The invention has the advantages that: (1) the invention has no hazards to human body and environment; (2) the tinned plate passivated with the inventive passivating solution has resistances against corrosion, oxidation and sulfurization (blackening), approaches or reaches the level of tinned plate passivated with a chromate containing sexavalent chrome passivated; and the inventive passivating solution can be used for the chemical passivation and electrochemical cathode passivation of various electroplating tin plates or hot-plating tin plates.

European tinplate prices to reflect supply cuts

ITRI: For years prices of tinplate have not reflected those of other flat products in their upward movements and the increased cost of production of hot rolled coil. Most producers have subsidized this market segment for too long, it is therefore likely that they will continue to try and recover some of the differences in their long term contracts which so far have not followed the ups and downs of spot pricing,' he said.

Padovani Group handles approximately 200,000 tonnes/year of tinplate through its service centres in Italy, Belgium and Central Europe."