Baosteel expands can making capacity

Factiva: "Baosteel subsidiary Baosteel Metal commissioned a can making plant on 23 May, which has annual capacity of 700m two-piece tinplate cans, Steel Business Briefing learns.

The new plant is located at Foshan Baosteel Can Making Co, Baosteel Metal’s can making subsidiary in southern China’s Foshan city, Guangdong province. With investment of RMB 375m ($55m), the plant can produce 2,000 steel beverage cans per minute. The company says most of the output will target drink manufacturers such as Coca Cola, Pepsi and Wanglaoji, all of which are long-term cooperative partners of Baosteel Metal.

Baosteel Metal says it plans to build another steel can plant in Foshan at a later date to boost overall capacity to 1.4bn cans/year. The general manager of Foshan Baosteel told local media that South China is the country’s largest tinplate can market with demand of 6bn cans/year, around 45% of China’s total consumption.

After starting the new plant in Foshan, Baosteel Metal is now running four tinplate can making subsidiaries with total capacity of about 2.4bn cans/year, fed by Baosteel's DI grade tinplate. The other three are located in Shanghai, northern China’s Hebei province and southwestern China’s Sichuan province. The 700m cans/year plant in Hebei was also commissioned in May."