Fuel price hike to hit cos' margins

The Times of India: "'Our bottomline will be impacted as expenses will go up as a result of the rise in fuel prices,' said Sanjay Bhatia, managing director, Hindustan Tin Works. Petroleum products are used to manufacture tins. Companies like Hindustan Tin Works would witness production costs going up in addition to the rising freight costs."

A novel high throw bright acid tin plating of printed circuit boards

Scopuss: "A novel acid tin plating process produces a bright deposit with excellent throwing power from a sulfate system. Particular attention is placed on the effects of benzylidene acetone, formaldehyde and OP emulsifier on the tin coating and the appropriate concentration of these additives is 0.6 g/L, 10 mL/L and 15mL/L, respectively.

The bright smooth tin layer may be deposited at 1-4 A/dm2 and 20-45C in this solution. The throwing power can reach 91.06% and the deepening plating ability of hole with Lid of 5 is 100%, which shows that this process may be used for rack plating applications of printed circuit boards. The XRD results show that the crystal face is mainly assigned to the (112) face on the deposits. The SEM results show that the appearance is uniform and the grain is superfine."

Ton Yi Industrial tinplate market uncertain in Q3

Steel Guru: "Ton Yi Industrial Corporation allocation for the Q2 has been fully booked and its buyers have accepted price hike.

Normally, the Q3 is hot season for beverage market and accordingly tinplate demands are expected to rise. Because of uncertainty on the Q3 steel price, the company would like to take conservative attitude toward the tinplate market.

Market analyst said that rising RMB currency is favorable for Ton Yi Industrial Corporation because its sales in China accounts for about 50% of its total sales."

December target for Baosteel's aluminium can plant

The Canmaker: "Work has started on building Baosteel’s fifth beverage canmaking plant in China.

The plant, at Wuhan, will be the steel manufacturer’s first to make aluminium cans and is expected to supply brands such as Wong Lo Kat, Coca-Cola and Budweiser when production starts in December"

Sales growth expected for Hindustan Tin Works

The Canmaker: "Keeping costs low is a big challenge, said Bhatia: 'Input costs for producing cans, mainly steel and petroleum products, have been rising. It's adding to cost pressures. So, we will have to hike prices very soon.'

With one factory at Haryana and a share in the Rexam HTW beverage can plant, the company is looking for another plant in the south of the sub-continent. 'The business is growing,' said Bhatia. 'We are evaluating options at this point in time. We want to move to alternate locations to be close to the customers and to be close to the market. We should have a new plant operational in the next one year.'"

Tinplate rules out merger with Tata Steel

IndiaVision News: "City-based metal packaging company Tinplate Friday ruled out a merger with Tata Steel anytime soon.

'Any merger or takeover is not something being discussed right now,' managing director Tarun Daga said here at a press conference after announcing the quarterly financial results of the company.

Former managing director B.L. Raina had said in December that parent company Tata Steel would consider a merger.

In March, Tata Steel had increased its stake in the company to 42.88 percent from 30.82 percent in September 2009. Also, the Tata group has increased its aggregate promoters' stake from 33.11 percent to 45.22 percent.

'The increase in Tata Steel's stake happened as they had taken up the unsubscribed portion of the rights issue,' Daga said."

The German market for tinplate packaging

EUWID:: "The pickup in demand already registered by most segments in the German market for tinplate packaging during the first three months generally continued throughout the second quarter.

Most packaging suppliers reported “satisfactory” to “lively” order levels. However, on the downside, supplies of the raw material tinplate were becoming a lot shorter and this was raising the pressure on some packaging suppliers. It was difficult to procure any additional tinplate volumes, according to respondents, and prices on the spot market were already above those of contract volumes."

International project aims to take EU pack standards global

packagingnews.co.uk: "Global ISO standards on packaging and its environmental impact could be launched as soon as 2012 after a project to create them kicked off in Beijing last week.

The project aims to facilitate trade across borders by developing a framework for packaging suppliers and buyers to discuss packaging specifications, in particular with regard to the environment, on a level playing field internationally.

Stina Wallstrom of the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) is leading the project as co-secretary with Xu Ting of Cepi China.

She told Packaging News that the new ISO standards would be based on the European standards behind the EU's Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive and existing guidelines in Asia."

Another coffee maker returns to using cans

The Canmaker -: "David Hunt, managing director of CTC, said it is part of a move by customers towards the use of metal containers to convey a high-class image that plastics pouches cannot equal.

'Metal containers, with a recycling rate of 62 percent, help promote brands that have environmental concerns,' he said. 'Cans are much more recyclable than plastics, laminated pouches and multi-layer board containers,' he added. 'And the decision by Whittard is just another confirmation of this.'"

BASF expands MSA petrochemical plant in Germany

PennEnergy: "BASF is investing in methanesulfonic acid (MSA) production and plans to expand the existing plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. After finalization in 2012, BASF will have an annual MSA capacity of 30,000 tonnes, making BASF the world's leading methanesulfonic acid supplier. Expansion of the MSA plant will create 12 new jobs at the Ludwigshafen site."

Japanese mills watching BaoSteel pricing of tinplates for Q3

Steel Guru: "Japan's integrated steelmakers have a strong interest in what prices China's Baosteel Company will apply in its domestic sales of tinplate for shipments in the July to September quarter. Baosteel is expected to inform domestic customers within this week of what the company will charge for tinplate as to July to September shipments. For the Japanese steelmakers, it is a matter of attention whether Baosteel will increase tinplate prices or keep them unchanged this time.

Baosteel makes it a rule to serve notice on monthly price terms for most of the various steel products. For an exception, though, the company applies quarterly price terms to tinplate. For April to June shipments, a base price increase of USD 118 is effect for tinplate after flat sales prices for January to March shipments.

In this connection, some Japanese integrated steelmakers have executed a price increase of USD 150 per tonne FOB in their tinplate exports to Southeast Asia for Q2 shipments as if to meet BaoSteel’s domestic price increase of tinplate. Other Japanese steelmakers have settled for a price increase of less than USD 150 per tonne FOB in their tinplate exports to Southeast Asia for Q2 shipments."

Japanese mills watching BaoSteel pricing of tinplates for Q3

Steel Guru: "Japan's integrated steelmakers have a strong interest in what prices China's Baosteel Company will apply in its domestic sales of tinplate for shipments in the July to September quarter. Baosteel is expected to inform domestic customers within this week of what the company will charge for tinplate as to July to September shipments. For the Japanese steelmakers, it is a matter of attention whether Baosteel will increase tinplate prices or keep them unchanged this time.

Baosteel makes it a rule to serve notice on monthly price terms for most of the various steel products. For an exception, though, the company applies quarterly price terms to tinplate. For April to June shipments, a base price increase of USD 118 is effect for tinplate after flat sales prices for January to March shipments.

In this connection, some Japanese integrated steelmakers have executed a price increase of USD 150 per tonne FOB in their tinplate exports to Southeast Asia for Q2 shipments as if to meet BaoSteel’s domestic price increase of tinplate. Other Japanese steelmakers have settled for a price increase of less than USD 150 per tonne FOB in their tinplate exports to Southeast Asia for Q2 shipments."

China metal packaging market pattern analysis

Get Hot News: "China metal container manufacturing equipment, already has a very strong strength. 2 cans of 26 production money, and annual production capacity of more than 110 of about 100 million (currently about 7 billion market demand). Three-piece tinplate cans manufacturing equipment already has various types of imported and domestic fully automatic or semi-automatic production line of about 500 of its products for one year supply of about 4 billion beverage industry, food industry, about 3. 8 billion cans. Aerosol cans annual production capacity of 600 million. Drums processing about 4000 years – 50 million. Indian Railway equipment across the country, more than 500 production lines, imported equipment and domestic equipment in half, printed more than 160 million years of printing times."

China metal packaging market is the trend of oversupply, but per capita consumption analysis, there is a larger room for development. China’s annual consumption of beverage cans 11 billion cans (2 cans 7 billion, three-piece cans 4 billion), per capita consumption of less than eight tanks, while Japan’s annual consumption of 18 billion cans, South Korea is 32 million cans. If China’s per capita consumption increased to 10 cans, 13 billion cans each year requires the supply capacity; addition, China’s consumption of canned food, low levels of per capita annual consumption of less than 1. 5kg, European per capita consumption of canned food for the 50kg, Japan both annual consumption level of 23kg.

India Tinplate stock in for 100% appreciation over next 12-18 months

The Economic Times: "The most important part is that tin as a material is definitely going into the food storage space. As we know, the Government of India has a larger amount of requirement to build the storage into the rural places and also have this particular grains stored in a proper manner. So at least the loss is as minimum as possible. So that is where tin demand is constantly growing."

As we progress towards modernisation, as we progress towards higher amount of food retailing part of activity, more and more such requirement would be there for higher amount of tin. At this point of time, this company is on an inflexion point more because they have expanded the tinning capacity and a free tinning capacity. At the same time, they have also done a backward integration.

So from that perspective, this company is going to have a larger amount of volume play going forward in this financial year and the next thereafter. Importantly with Tata Steel’s Corus unit in Europe, they would be in a much better position to expand into European markets where they have got a larger amount of offtake also for this particular material index put about 25% of the capacity anyway. So that would give them an advantage apart from giving an advantage of further capacities, the quality steel that they would be in a position to manufacture out of the Corus’s tie-up.

So all these things put together and a valuation of less than 7 on a forward earning basis of PE is giving me a good amount of comfort level that this stock is in for about 100% plus appreciation over next one to one and a half period time from now.

Packaging should communicate, says pack guru

The Canmaker: "But Wallentin finds ever-less packaging that meets the mark. In fact, he thinks packaging lags five years behind the development of communication in general.

“Just compare it with movies like ‘Avatar’. They run in 3D, making packaging of today look really 2D,” he says.

“I hope my blog will be a wake-up call. To the major European companies that tend to see a lot of legal obstacles to creative design and communication on packaging - there’s not. And to the new generation of communicators that are being fed massive amounts of information on the web, but haven’t been given the knowledge of how to use it.

“Those who follow my blog will, step by step, learn how to make efficient packaging communication!”"

Blog

Rasselstein seeks to readjust contract periods

Factiva: "Tinplate producer Rasselstein will have to readjust contract terms with its customers to catch up with changes on the materials supply side, it tells Steel Business Briefing.

Like other major European tinplate producers, the German company sells its products virtually exclusively to canmakers. As one distributors puts it to SBB, “we stopped storing tinplate years ago, it has become mostly direct business; it’s a complicated product that requires close technical cooperation.”

Most of Rasselstein’s contracts have been annual, to accompany the production campaigns of packagers, often subject to seasonal effects when it comes to vegetables and fruit, CEO Ulrich Roeske tells SBB. “But this will have to change to consider the changes in the iron ore contracts,” he says. The company is currently campaigning to find new contract formulas with its customers, adds marketing chief Christian Puerschel.

The near future will bring a goodbye to long-term contracts, and a hello to increased volatility, according to Roeske. “It looks like we will no longer be able to guarantee price stability as we used to,” he says. But he is optimistic the company will succeed in passing on the price premiums it has to bear for raw materials. “There is no splendid isolation for tinplate in the steel world; not for us, and not for the processors of tinplate.”"

Ball to sell its plastics packaging business

The Canmaker: "Ball Corporation, the largest canmaker in the North American market, is selling its plastics bottle business to Amcor.

The deal, worth $280 million, includes five plants in the US that make PET bottles and preforms and polypropylene bottles. For the year to the end of March, sales for the division were $589m with pre-tax profits of $10m.

Sales for Ball in the plastics sector had been declining and represented about 8.5 percent of the Colorado-based company’s global sales of about $7.3bn.

Ball also announced that its board had authorised the buy-back of 12 million shares of common stock worth about $630m.

The exit from plastics packaging enables Ball to concentrate on its canmaking and aerospace businesses. It is the largest manufacturer of beverage cans in North America with 40 percent of the business, and also makes steel food cans and general line metal packaging.

Ball’s Asia Pacific division has also completed the $90m acquisition of Guangdong Jianlibao Group’s 65 percent interest in a joint-venture metal beverage can and end plant in Sanshui, China. Ball owned 35 percent of the joint venture plant, the largest in China with three canmaking lines, since 1992."

Indonesian Tinplate to be Exported to Australia

SMM: "Indonesian tin producer PT Pelat Timah Nusantara (Latinusa) plans to export part of its tin plate production to Australia beginning next year, the Jakarta Post reported. The company's general manager for production Kusna Indrawan said that beginning next year, Latinusa would export up to 40,000 tonnes of tinplate to Australia, equivalent to 25 % of the country's annual demand. The business will have a value of some US$55 million per year.

Since the closure Bluescope Steel's last remaining tinning line at its Port Kembla plant in 2007, Australia has imported all its requirements, mainly from Japan. According to Kusna, Latinusa's major shareholder - Nippon Steel group, which previously exported tinplate to Australia from Japan - appointed Latinusa to continue the export to Australia for efficiency reasons. Although shipments are expected to commence at the start of 2011, the timetable could be advanced if necessary."

Canmakers to have their own plaza at Interpack

Google Reader (1000 ): "Canmaking companies will be able to promote themselves to an international audience as part of a special forum being staged at the Interpack show in Germany next year from 12-18 May.

The Metal Packaging Plaza at Interpack – the biggest trade show of its kind, and held every three years – will be part of the Innovationparc Packaging which is focusing on the Quality of Life, says the organiser Messe Dusseldorf."

Centre of the 2,500 sq m Metal Packaging Plaza will be an Empac (European Metal Packaging) booth from which the industry group will provide general information that promotes metal packaging. Canmakers such as Impress are taking booth space around this central point.

The Plaza is being co-ordinated by Jörg Höppner, president of the German metal packaging federation Verband Metallverpackungen EV, who is also a Messe Düsseldorf board member.

It is thought to be the first time that Messe Düsseldorf has tried to attract the canmaking industry to the show as a group in more than two decades, although leading canmakers such as Ball, Crown, Impress, Massilly and Rexam have exhibited individually in recent years.

“This is a brave attempt to raise the image of metal packaging,” said a source close to the organisers, “but the only problem is that there is a date clash the Metpack show, which is being held from 10-14 May at Essen.”

Canmaking in Europe to get an umbrella lobby group

The Canmake: "An organisation that serves the wider canmaking industry in Europe is being created by leading interest groups.

It brings together those who represent food can and general line manufacturers, beverage can producers, and the steel and aluminium canstock companies.

Called Metal Packaging Europe (MPE), its formation was agreed at a meeting in Brussels at the end of May by executives from European Metal Packaging (Empac), Beverage Can Makers Europe, APEAL (the packaging steel manufacturers) and the European Aluminium Association.


Chris Homfray, president of Crown Europe, has been appointed as chairman. Former director of external environment affairs at Rexam and past president of Europen Anders Linde was appointed as MPE’s executive director.

“During the last two or three years our industry has faced an increasing number of hard and soft law packaging-related initiatives coming from national governments in Europe,” said Linde."

“The issues raised are common to all of us and it has been necessary for the metal packaging sector to bring together expertise from the aluminium and steel producers as well as the can manufacturers.

“The respective boards of APEAL, BCME, EAA and Empac have decided to formalise the collaborative arrangements in a new umbrella body to be known as Metal Packaging Europe.”

Linde added that the four organizations will pool resources and further details on agreed priorities will be worked out over the coming weeks.

Nippon Steel, JFE Steel Boosting Tinplate Steel Output

Factiva: "Nippon Steel Corp. (5401) and JFE Steel Corp. are each taking steps to boost production capacity for tinplate steel, used to make cans for beverages and canned foods."

Nippon Steel is investing an estimated 3-4 billion yen to raise its annual domestic output capacity by about 10% to 1.3 million tons this year. The company makes tinplate steel at three factories in Japan, with a focus on material for the manufacture of food cans. It plans to upgrade the equipment used to plate tin onto steel sheet and in doing so increase its overall production capacity at the three facilities by some 100,000 to 150,000 tons a year.

JFE Steel is building a new line for tinplate base material at the Fukuyama arm of its West Japan Works in Hiroshima Prefecture. This line will have an annual output capacity of 480,000 tons, and when it starts up the company will end operations on an existing line, which has a capacity of 264,000 tons. The JFE Holdings Inc. (5411) unit had originally planned to start up the new line in February or March of 2011, later bringing that date forward to January, but has now decided to start this autumn.

Tinplate steel is made from steel sheet just 0.18mm to 0.25mm thick, and the plating must not crack when the metal is shaped into cylinders for cans. Only four companies in Asia have the necessary expertise: Nippon Steel; JFE Steel; South Korean firm Pohang Iron & Steel Co., or Posco; and Chinese firm Baosteel Group Corp.

The Asian market for tinplate steel is growing at an annual 4-5% clip, with continued expansion in demand expected as economic growth lifts incomes and changes dietary lifestyles to include greater consumption of canned foods, carbonated beverages and canned coffees.

MMK aims to increase quality of tinplate

SteelOrbis: "The Russian steel producer Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has announced that its subsidiary MMK Trading House has signed a contract with Italian producer of steelmaking machinery and plants Danieli for the supply of a 15,000 mt per month capacity tension (stretch) leveler for MMK's coating shop.

The new tension leveler is to significantly improve the quality of MMK's tinplate and to reduce its flatness to up to 1.5-2 mm, instead of 5 mm under the old GOST 13345-85 standard. The project is to be implemented within 16 months.

Accordingly, the increased quality of MMK's tinplate will also help MMK Trading House to boost its sale volumes. By the end of 2012, the company plans to reach sales levels of 160,000 mt of tinplate. The installation of the new tension leveler is expected to allow MMK Trading House to increase its sales by about 30,000 mt per year. According to the company's statement, the installation of this unit is the first stage of a larger project for the comprehensive reconstruction of MMK's tinplate line, which will allow new qualitative characteristics to be achieved for this product.

The capacity of Russia's tinplate market is estimated at about 300,000 mt per year, of which more than half is accounted for by MMK, which is the country's only manufacturer of this product."

Ball reveals its sustainability achievements

The Canmaker: "After investing more than US$36 million in energy savings projects since 2007, it says it has cut total energy consumption by 11 percent and reduced water consumption by 8.6 percent. It also reduced energy consumption per 1,000 cans by 9 percent."

"Sustainability is connected directly to creating value for our stakeholders and for Ball," said chief executive David Hoover. "Our second sustainability report and expanded online sustainability reporting provide details on the progress we have made over the past two years, and on our focus going forward as we continue to drive our economic, social and environmental performance."

In Ball’s European beverage can operations between 2007 and 2009, Ball cut its natural gas consumption per 1,000 cans by 11 percent, and electricity by 9 percent. Carbon monoxide emissions were cut by 10 percent.

"We are working systematically to improve and control our energy and resource efficiency, define objectives and initiate programmes to make both our production processes and the business as a whole more sustainable," said Björn Kulmann, sustainability manager at Ball Packaging Europe.

Ball has invested in continually improving the environmental friendliness of its production processes. Between 2008 and 2009, around €5 million ($6.1m) was spent on modernizing production systems in Europe to increase energy efficiency.

It has also focused on modernising the air compressors, among the highest users of electricity in the beverage can manufacturing process, at its British plants at Rugby and Wrexham in 2009, significantly reducing energy consumption.

In 2009, the company invested around €500,000 ($613,000) in installing adsorption rotors in the afterburning plants at each of its facilities in Hermsdorf, Germany and Bierne, France. This system is used to clean the flue air from the curing ovens, and using significantly less energy.

Over the next two years (2010/2011), Ball Packaging Europe is planning to reduce its electricity use in Europe by a further 8 percent, while also lowering natural gas and water consumption by 4.9 percent each per 1,000 cans produced.

Iran:Vice president inaugurates a new tinplate rolling facility, Farrokh Shahr

Metal Industry India: "Farrokh Shahr Steel, a rolling mill with an annual capacity of 150,000 mt of tinplate, was officially inaugurated by Iranian vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi recently."

The rolling mill, which uses CRC sourced from Mobarakeh Steel as well as from other local and foreign sources as feedstock, mainly targets the local market. The mill is located on a site of 50 hectares close to Farrokh Shahr city in the province of Chahar Mahal-e-Bakhtiyari. An investment of about $48 mln has been spent on the project and about 250 persons will be employed at the plant when it operates at full capacity.

Aspects of tinplate research at I.T.R.I.

Emerald.: "The International Tin Research Institute has approximately 80 staff working at the Headquarters and Laboratories of the organisation near London. Half of these are directly engaged in research into existing and potential uses for tin and the work is organised into two main Divisions. One of these, the Metallurgy and Tinplate Division contains a section devoted to tinplate research and additional support is drawn from the Analytical Chemistry and Metallography Sections as it is required."

Tuna cans that save on tinplate costs

The Canmaker: "Savings in the weight of tuna cans of almost a fifth could be made using new draw-redraw technology developed in the US by Alfons Haar Inc.
The tooling and press manufacturer based in Springboro, Ohio, has designed a can aimed at the seafood and tuna market that is made from double-reduced 0.14mm DR8 tinplate

Currently, tuna cans are usually made from tinplate with a gauge of either 0.16mm or 0.17mm. Customers would achieve a saving in tinplate of at least 12.5 percent with the new design, which uses vertical beading in the walls to improve stability with the thinner material.

Reducing the gauge from the thicker material would provide a 17.7 percent saving."