Cans

INDUSTRIAL CODES

NAICS: 33-2431 Metal Can Manufacturing

SIC: 3411 Metal Cans

NAICS-Based Product Codes: 33-24311 through 33-2431W

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Metal cans are used in the packaging of foods, beverages, as well as for packaging household, institutional, and industrial cleansers, aerosol sprays, solvents, paints, lubricants, and related products. They are typically cylindrical containers but, in recent times, have also appeared in more complex shapes as promotional products, including in the form of tapered shapes resembling bottles.

Steel and aluminum, sometimes in combination, are the principal raw materials forming the can itself. Steel cans may carry a very thin layer of tin to protect the metal from corrosion and/or organically-based (plastic) coatings that serve the same purpose. Since 1995 soldered cans containing lead in the solder have been prohibited, but lead solder is still occasionally used in can-making overseas. Metal cans typically feature a printed paper wrapper adhering to the can by tiny dabs of glue. Aluminum cans, almost exclusively used in beverage packaging, typically carry a printed brand logo instead of being wrapped. The principal purpose of metal containers of either metal is preservation of food during distribution and storage over extended periods of time. In the industry itself closures are a distinct product category that may be sold and even used separately, thus in cardboard containers with a steel lid.

Canning in metal appeared early in the nineteenth century—a product of war, as so many other innovations. Napoleon Bonaparte kicked off the process in 1795 by offering a prize of 12,000 francs to the inventor of a method for preserving food. Nicholas Appert, a chef and candy maker, won the prize in 1809. Appert invented canning, but his containers were sealed glass. He sealed his containers in boiling water, thus producing a vacuum. Britain at the time saw the Napoleanic expansion across Europe as a threat and responded by taking the next step toward canning. In 1810 Peter Durand in England received a patent for food preservation. Durand wished to make a less breakable container better suited for the rough-and-tumble of military life and used containers made of sheet iron coated with tin; the tin coating was intended to protect the iron from corrosion by acidic food. The tin can was born. For a century workmen made cans by hand, roughly ten per day per laborer. They cut the metal, bent it into shape, cut tops and bottoms, and soldered these on. The top lid, equipped with a small opening, received the food to be preserved. The cans were sealed by soldering the small hole shut.

Can manufacturing began in New York in 1812, introduced by an immigrant from England, Thomas Kensett. The industry developed rapidly so that by 1861, at the opening of the Civil War, 5 million cans were made annually—and after the Civil War 30 million. Innovations speeded up the process. Producers discovered that salting the water in which cans were cooked increased temperature and thus saved time. Producers introduced mechanized soldering of can seams and increased output from ten to sixty cans per day. The so-called sanitary can appeared in 1900 produced by creating double folds of metal at the seams. The folds were applied over the solder; this eliminated soot and minimized the migration of traces of lead into the food. By the early 1920s automated can body production appeared in the United States and production speeds of up 250 cans per minute became possible. Experiments to can beverages began in the 1940s but beverage cans, which required innovations to handle internal pressures generated by sodas and beer, were delayed by World War II and the Korean War that soon followed. Critical materials were scarce. This application emerged after 1953 when rationing of metals was suspended. Aluminum cans appeared in 1965. Technological developments, thereafter, centered on eliminating lead from solder, technological improvements in processing to speed production and to take out costs, dual metal containers (steel can, aluminum closure), and improved closures generally. Within the aluminum can system, cans were made with ever less aluminum.

The rise of environmental consciousness, symbolized by the first Earth Day celebration which took place in 1970, brought metal containers, particularly beverage containers, into the forefront of environmental concern. The industry became involved with recycling programs. Aluminum containers, which dominate the metal beverage industry, are an ideal product for recycling because aluminum is valuable as a metal and thus incentives for their return can be high; they are also light and easily compressed in recycling operations.

Cans made of either metal represent mature end markets. Alternatives to metals in liquid or moist food containments are limited but making headway through innovation; alternatives in beverage packaging are glass and plastics; both are competitors although aluminum dominates sodas and beer. Innovation in aluminum is centered on shapes and closures—thus on features that have a strong promotional and marketing aspect.

MARKET

Based on the Economic Census conducted by the Bureau of the Census, metal cans represented an $11 billion industry in 2002 and, by projection of past trends, was around $11.4 billion in the early 2000s. The concept of industry shipments underlies these numbers, thus the receipts of the manufacturers from the users of the can—companies that package the actual goods sold to the ultimate consumers. Still using 2002 census results, steel cans were $4.07 billion (37%) and aluminum cans $6.86 billion (62%) of the total, the remainder accounted for by miscellaneous parts and closures. In the five-year period before the census, metal can shipments declined at the rate of 5.7 percent annually, but trends in steel and aluminum differed. Steel cans saw an annual decline of 2.7 percent between 1997 and 2002 whereas aluminum cans saw an annual growth of 0.9 percent.

The can manufacturing industry employed 38,600 people in 2002, down from 41,400 in 1997. In 2002 the industry had 51 participating companies, 36 engaged in steel and 15 in aluminum can-making. The total has declined from 57 companies in 1997, 41 in steel and 16 in aluminum. The decline in number of corporations is best explained by mergers and acquisitions in that consolidation has been widespread in this industry.

Cans serve three distinct markets which, in order of relative size, are beverage distribution, food distribution, and the distribution of selected chemical products. The beverage distribution market in turn divides into a larger and smaller market, the larger being cans for soft drinks. In the North American market, including Canada, just under 70 billion cans, virtually all made of aluminum, carried soft drinks to the market based on data from the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI). Data from the same source but for North American beer sales indicate the use of around 32 billion aluminum cans.

The North American market for food cans accounted for just under 30 billion cans in 2005 as estimated by Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC based on company reports. The major segments of this market in order of size, based on CMI data for 2005, were vegetables (34%), pet foods (22%), soups and similar products (17%), dairy products (7%), fruits and meat and poultry (each 6%), seafood (5%), baby food (2%), and coffee (1%). The overwhelming majority of cans used in these applications are made of steel.

The remaining category of non-food cans, usually labeled general line cans, represent around 4.5 billion units of which aerosol cans account for 72 percent and all other kinds for the rest. These products typically carry chemicals, lubricants, solvents, and paints but may also be used for packaging novelty items. The category is heavily based on steel rather than aluminum.

As a consequence of supply logistics, cans made of either metal are manufactured very close to end users. For this reason the import and export of cans, if any, is not traceable in statistics. The raw materials that go into these products, of course, are traded on the international markets.

KEY PRODUCERS/MANUFACTURERS

The corporate structure of can manufacturing divides along lines indicated by the two basic component materials, steel and aluminum, both of which, represent major raw materials production activities in the background. Thus there is a distinct aluminum and a distinct steel can production industry, although leaders in one may be involved in the other as well. Behind these companies are major suppliers of steel and aluminum. Another distinct manner of participation in this industry—or the two metal-based portions of them—is by supplying specialized componentry or supplies, such as proprietary easy-open ends, valves (for aerosol cans), coatings, sealing systems, and inks.

It is also worth noting that in this industry, as in many others, physical as well as corporate consolidation has taken place. The transportation of empty cans is inefficient because a great deal of air has to be moved, translatable into cubage. Instead of moving empty cans producers make cans as close as possible to the point at which they are filled. Some end-product producers also own the packaging production function. This is the case with the beer company, Anheuser-Busch.

Aluminum

The three leading producers of aluminum cans are Ball Corporation, Metal Container Corporation, and Rexam Beverage Cans Americas. Of these three Ball makes both aluminum cans for beverages and steel cans for food packaging. The company's beverage business was by the acquisition of Jeffco Manufacturing Company (1969) and purchase of Reynolds Metal Company's domestic can making assets (1998). Reynolds was a major aluminum producer later acquired by Alcoa (2000). Ball entered the European beverage industry in 2002 by purchasing Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, the second largest such producers in Europe. Ball operates 20 beverage can production plants in North America (including Puerto Rico) and 11 in Europe.

Metal Container Corporation (MCC) is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Companies. The company makes aluminum containers and closures (tops), supplying roughly two-thirds of its parent's requirements of the former, three-quarters of the latter. MCC also produces cans and tops for other soft-drink beverage companies. The company was built by Anheuser-Busch from the ground up in 1973.

Rexam Beverage Cans Americas is the inheritor of a leading U.S. can producer, American National Can Company (a major supplier of Coca Cola Co., Coors, and Anheuser-Busch), which it acquired in 2000. Rexam began in 1923 as the Bowater's Paper Mills in England, specializing in newsprint. Later the Bowater Group renamed itself Rexam and transformed itself, principally by acquisitions, into a consumer packaging company, becoming the world's top beverage can producer in the process.

These companies, in their domestic and international operations, rely on the principal feedstock, aluminum sheeting, and on the major aluminum producers. These are Alcoa, Inc., ARCO Aluminum, Inc., Novelis Corporation, Wise Alloys LLC, and others.

Steel

The leading steel can producers include Ball, BWAY Corporation, Impress USA Inc., Silgan Containers Corporation, Sonoco Products Co., and Van Can Company. Ball entered the food can business in the 1980s (after entering the aluminum can market for beverages) and expanded in the steel category as well by acquiring Heekin Can, Inc. in 1993. BWAY Corporation, earlier known as Brockway Standard, began in 1870 and grew by acquisition of several other companies and represents the leading producer of general line cans serving the paint and other related solvent producers, including Sherwin Williams, Glidden, DuPont, PPG, and Thompson MinWax.

Impress USA Inc. is the operating presence in the United States of Impress Group BV, a Netherlands-based packaging conglomerate originally formed by the merger of the French company Pechiney and the German firm Schmalbach-Lubeca (another part of which was sold to Ball Corporation). Impress is a leading can producer in Europe. Its U.S. division is a leader in seafood and petfood canning. Impress has proprietary easy-open closures and supplies these widely to others. Impress USA was formed when Impress acquired the canning assets of Starkist from H.J. Heintz Company Ltd. in 2000.

Silgan Containers Corporation is a U.S. company, a producer of food containers, its origins going back to the 1920. The company supplies approximately half of the entire food canning market and serves such major food companies as Campbell, Del Monte, General Mills, Hormel Foods, Nestle and other well-known brands. Enthusiasts for Spam (the edible kind) may note that Silgan has been packaging this Hormel product since 1927. The company also makes aluminum packaging and is a leader in easy-open ends, a feature of increasing importance in the metal packaging market.

Sonoco Products is a highly diversified packaging, packing, and product protection company with participation in many niches as a component supplier. The company's participation in the can business includes manufacturing of steel full panel pull out (FPPO) ends and several related products, including plastic end caps, all important features in the development of steel cans because they provide convenience for the consumer. The company began operations as the Southern Novelty Company in 1899 introducing the first ever paper yarn carrier, replacing more expensive wooden objects used before—a novelty for its time.

Van Can Company is a producer of steel cans for food distribution. The company emerged by degrees from the Ralston Purina Company. The latter sold its Van Camp Seafood property, Chicken of the Sea, along with the canning plant that served it, to an Indonesian investor. The investor first separated the seafood and the canning operations as separate entities and then sold Van Can Company to Komodo Enterprises Inc. Van Camp remains an important participant in seafood canning, producing both cans and ends, and has diversified into other food areas as well.

These and other companies engaged in steel can production rely on steel sheet manufacturing by such producers (in alphabetical order) as Dofasco Inc., Mittal Steel USA, US Steel, and USS-POSCO Industries.

Specialists

In the twenty-first century can making has reached a very high level of technological sophistication reliant on a number of specialists in metal products, sealants, coating techniques, adhesives, inks, and more. Can makers look to such companies for specialized knowledge, products, and techniques which it would be inefficient for each of them to develop independently. This technological status of the industry has produced a number of suppliers who do not make cans but are integral to the industry.

Examples are DAREX Container Products, a specialist in sealants and coatings, and ICI Packaging Coatings, a leading coatings producer. Sealants guarantee product freshness. Coatings inhibit corrosion of the metal that they protect. INX International Ink Company combines coatings know-how with a specialization in suitable and compatible inks used to print can surfaces. PPG Industries (originally Pittsburgh Plate Glass) provides the same expertise and has a long history (back to 1883) as a specialist in sealants, coatings, paints, and ink. Other leaders are The Valspar Corporation and Watson Standard, both specialists in coatings.

MATERIALS & SUPPLY CHAIN LOGISTICS

Cans are typically manufactured in close proximity to the facilities in which they are later filled. The product is not completed until the closure is applied to the open can already holding the beverage, soup, vegetables, paint, or what have you. Thus the making of the can itself takes place in one operation but its final sealing in another. In most situations the two production operations are in close proximity. Open cans are conveyed on belts to the filling operations from within the same building or from an adjacent building. Relatively small canning operations—too small to justify the placement of a complex can-making facility next door—will receive open cans arranged on pallets from trucks. The general rule, however, is the co-location of canning and filling operations.

Canning plants typically receive their basic metal in huge coils—steel or aluminum. If simple closures are used—as in an ordinary soup can made of steel—the body of the can and its two ends are cut from the same sheet of metal. The bottom is joined to the body to form a cup; the top is applied after contents have been added. If the can uses an easy-open top, these specially engineered lids may be manufactured at a distant location and shipped to the can-making facility in bulk. In making two-piece beverage containers, the cup portion of the can is punched out of the incoming coil of aluminum sheet and the bottom, already part of the extrusion, is shaped in a mold. Virtually all beverage cans feature pull-tab openings which are frequently produced off-site by specialists. The general rule from a logistical point of view, is that the cup portion of the can is always made on site from coils of metal brought in by truck or rail but that the closures may come prefabricated from vendors unless the cans made are standard steel containers intended to be opened by a can-opener.

The other important components of cans, almost always acquired in bulk containers and applied in the manufacturing process are coatings, inks, varnishes applied over inked surfaces, and sealants. To achieve efficient operations in steel can production, coatings are applied to and decorative or informational messages are printed on the sheet itself before it is scored and cut. Varnishes are applied after the inks are force-dried in ovens. Internal coatings are applied to the cup itself after it is steam-cleaned before filling. Aluminum cans are printed as cups because the sheet itself is deformed in making the cup; all other operations, therefore, also take place with the cup already formed. Incoming closures, especially those of large surface area that can carry a message will arrive preprinted and varnished.

If paper labels are applied to cans these may arrive in pre-printed rolls ready to be installed into feeding machinery for cutting and application with dabs of adhesive. Similarly, if the cans feature a plastic cap—to be used by the consumer after opening the can—these caps are usually manufactured by a vendor and arrive in bulk.

From a logistical point of view, the most important aspect of can manufacturing is to locate the operation as close to the final user's plant as possible. Production of the cans is managed and controlled to feed the filler exactly what it requires as it requires it, eliminating inventories of cans waiting to be filled. Steel or aluminum, plus other supplies in bulk, are the can makers inventory.

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

Metal cans are part of the vast category of packaging and, as such, distribution has two distinct aspects. If viewed from the perspective of the seller of cans to a canner of goods, distribution is direct from the manufacturer to the buyer. The buyer, indeed, may be the manufacturer, as is the case for Anheuser-Busch and others. Two corporate entities may be involved, but in practice the can-making operation is usually established as part of the total canning enterprise as an on-site supplier. Long-term contracts are the rule. In an operational sense, the can maker coordinates its production schedules with those of the canner in the most detailed and intimate ways. The principal sales event takes the form of an extended negotiation and planning cycle between a can maker and the canner. Thereafter price adjustments take place on the basis of terms fixed in the contract that, for example, may explicitly recognize factors over which the vendor, the can maker, has no control—such as the price of aluminum or steel.

Once cans are filled, sealed, and additionally packaged in cartons affixed to pallets, the can itself has, in effect, lost its identity as a product distinct from its contents. It will proceed thereafter in the distribution channel appropriate to the product it carries. Viewed from this perspective, the can itself invariably has minimally a three-tier distribution: from the seller to the canner, from the canner to the retailer, from retailer to the consumer. Some portion of virtually all products packaged in cans also pass through a wholesale level and cans thus often have a four-tier distribution.

KEY USERS

From the can producer's perspective, the key users of cans are producers who need a package capable of containing perishable liquid or semi-liquid products—products that need protection from organic processes of decay. Among key users are producers of pressurized liquids requiring the strength of metal to contain their goods as well as those selling products that, in the event of accidental spill, can cause harm directly to those who come in touch with the product or may result in fires. Cans provide long-term product protection and are thus attractive to producers of goods looking for long shelf-life. Metals, by reason of their durability, imply higher cost than flimsy paper or stretch-able plastic and carry an aura of permanence and value. These features of canning attract users who wish to exploit their generic capacity to draw attention to their products or to give them value or visibility. A trivial example is the packaging of cookies in firm and beautifully decorated metal cans—despite well established alternatives that provide the same protection at significantly lower costs. But some buyers of novelty metal packaging, which falls under the Census Bureau's definition of a can, will package many products in metal even when these need no protection at all—jewelry, stationary, and even dolls.

Consumers are the ultimate users of cans. The overwhelming majority of canned goods are intended for the ordinary consumer. To be sure, industrial/commercial products are also distributed in cans, notably lubricants, industrial solvents, and commercial-grade paint products. Institutional markets received canned goods, for instance medical products intended for hospital use—and military supplies. But in terms of numbers of cans or billions of dollars, the largest single category is beverage distribution followed by food packaging.

ADJACENT MARKETS

As part of the packaging industry, the metal can stands on the grocer's or drug store's shelves side by side with glass containers, plastic bottles and jars, rigid and flexible paper containers, and composite packages made of different materials in laminated, coated, and nested compositions. As the history of canning indicates, the nearest adjacent market to the metal can is the glass container. When we speak of home canning the image of glass jars appears, the first type of container doing the job metal cans now do. Glass also forged the way in the distribution of beer and sodas in single-portion quantities. Long before the aluminum can appeared, the returnable glass bottle was king. Glass offers all of the core functionalities of the can. It adds the feature of making the contents visible to the users, and the inert nature of glass keeps it from even microscopic contamination of the material it holds. But glass has two major and one minor drawback. Glass is breakable. It is heavy and thus adds significant costs in distribution. The minor drawback of glass is that it takes longer to cool the contents. This aspect is important in the distribution of beverages, be they beer, soda, or milk: the product in a can cools much faster and thus provides a consumer benefit. Glass still remains the exclusive package for wine because glass least interferes with the taste of the product.

The history of packaging is the history of materials competing for dominance based on complex factors including inherent suitability, cost, weight, shelf-life, stackability, capacity to display decoration and messages, translucency, and other factors. Aluminum has achieved dominance in beer and soda packaging and will retain it unless, due to increasing aluminum prices, it comes under pressure. Such an eventuality is at least theoretically possible because the energy requirements for making aluminum from bauxite are very high. When and if that point arrives, aluminum's currently minor competitors, plastics and glass, will have difficulty competing as well. Plastics depend on petroleum, and an energy crisis driving aluminum prices very high will also make plastics expensive. Glass, similarly, is also an energy-intensive product in that it requires the melting of sand. In the very long run—unless humanity discovers some genuinely novel form of cheap energy—we may slide backward to the oldest package of all, the wooden keg.

One of the reasons that metal cans showed a history of flat growth or outright decline in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is because its dominant segment is food packaging, an extremely diverse category in comparison with beverages. Alternatives abound. For example, soup in a can competes with soup packaged in sealed glass jars; it also competes with instant soup that may be packaged in sealed paper cups or laminated sacks combining paper, plastics, and a metallic outer layer. In addition, from time to time, canned soup may also compete with societal fashions, as for instance increased cooking at home from fresh ingredients. Such trends, however, are difficult to measure. Another example of indirect competition by product transformation is the sale of instant or freeze-dried coffee in composite paper-plastic containers in competition with ground coffee in cans.

Industry observers, such as Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC, discern as one of the chief factors causing sluggish growth in steel can production the rising competition from flexible packaging. Technological advances in materials emerged strongly in the sustained period of growth following World War II and have not abated. Flexible packaging is only likely to nibble at the edges of the steel can market. In many largely commodified applications such as soups, fruits, and vegetables, consumers are unlikely to abandon long-established habits, not least the ability to store and stack cans on shelves, in favor of products that will, at least initially, appear to be less obviously safe.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Packaging in cans began as the consequence of a deliberate effort to stimulate R&D in France in support of military goals. The field has, since then, marched from innovation to innovation and continues to do so to this day. The major thrusts of development may be subdivided into basic materials research, production-oriented innovation, and product differentiation.

From the earliest times of canning in metal, a negative aspect of this form of packaging has been that some of the metal, if in microscopic quantities, has always migrated into the product itself. The human palate has extraordinary sensitivity, moreso in some than others. For some the metallic taste is still detectable despite the use of very effective coatings on the side of cans. This issue goes by the name of manufacturing-induced taste factors in the industry and is receiving continued and intensive attention; the work is focused on coatings, particularly the thoroughness with which suitable coatings cover the surface at the submicroscopic level. Taste panels are used by the industry to support this research, reminiscent of panels used in wine evaluation.

Research is also directed at the exterior of cans in the context of environmental factors that may affect the container in shipping and storage. This sort of R&D is focused on the performance of outer varnishes, deformations due to heat and cold and their effects on seals, and on the sealing technologies used in cans generally. Part of this work is active testing of products to failure and then the forensic tracing of the failure event and its consequences.

Research is also being applied at the manufacturing process itself intended to speed up can making, detecting difficult-to-see bottlenecks and events that cause them, and introducing automated controls and quality assurance measurements at more stages of the production process.

The can itself receives a great deal of R&D attention. Here the effort is driven by competitive forces and the work merges into new product and new application developments. A central focus remains on easy-to-open closures, a feature likely to give producers a competitive edge as the baby boom generation ages. This effort has been paralleled by a phenomenon associated with alternative markets, namely the development of ever better can openers. Within the aluminum sector, substantial work is being undertaken to achieve new shapes in aluminum, a leading shape being a bottle and, preferably, a reclosable bottle. Other shapes, providing consumers with an easier grip, are also emerging or still being perfected. The quest for new shapes, including multi-purpose cans, is also an important aspect of steel can R&D. Thus, for instance, a can that will double as container and soup dish or cup is a research goal. Steel itself prevents microwaves from penetrating into a can or can-like container, but with a composite can that features a plastic closure it appears likely that microwavable cans are in the offing as the twenty-first century advances. All of these efforts converge on providing the consumer new conveniences and to offer the canner innovative products that stand a chance to gain them market share.

CURRENT TRENDS

The major trends in this industry have to some extent been alluded to already. In the aluminum segment, the stronger of the two, innovations are trending toward new shapes. Whether or not bottle-shaped aluminum cans will be adopted widely in the market, and thus become commodified, widely accepted, and cheap remains to be seen. The bottle shape, while novel in aluminum, introduces inconveniences in storage while demanding a higher price. The major trend in steel has been absence of growth and losses of market share to other forms of packaging—stemmed or slowed by innovations in easy-to-use closures. Likely developments in the steel sector of canning will be the emergence of composite cans, with the lid or a portion of it being made of plastics, taking out weight and adding new features.

No discussion of trends in the can industry can be complete without noting the environmental issue. It is of long standing but continues to receive a great deal of attention inside the industry. The issue rose to prominence in the 1960s, already in a concern over beverage can litter and evolved into the more general concern with recycling. The industry, through its associations of producers, like the Can Manufacturing Institute, and buyers, like the American Beverage Association and The Beer Institute, are energetically backing recycling programs for beverage and other containers in efforts to avoid mandatory deposit legislation or outright bans on different types of containers. As a consequence of such outreach, promotion, and actual programs, substantial portions of aluminum are recycled. In that process, 95 percent of the energy consumed in making the original aluminum from bauxite is saved—achieving genuine environmental and economic savings.

TARGET MARKETS & SEGMENTATION

In the discussion of the market presented above, the major markets and segments have already been outlined adequately, this being an industry where the product itself is a container common to many specific markets. But aside from the broad structure of the industry, its division into two separate metals used for their unique characteristics, and then into the separate containment applications for which they are used, target markets and segments in another sense of the word are well worth noting. These really point to the leading edge of an industry that is, on the whole, the supplier of a well-established commodity.

In this special sense, producers and users of cans are clearly orienting their efforts of product differentiation at three different groups. One of these is the youth market, likely to respond to novelty and innovation. By accepting new products, these young users will then, the industry hopes, lead in the expansion of new products as their early acceptors grow and mature. Beverage can makers are aiming products at this market when they develop and introduce bottle-shaped aluminum cans. A second distinct segment receiving targeting by the producers are busy young adults looking for rapid and efficient accomplishment of routine tasks in the course of busy lives. Developments in the field aimed at producing reusable containers, a can that serves as a soup bowl, for example, and microwavable composite cans have young adults in mind. Specially shaped products that enable children to drink juices without spilling them belong in this category as well. The third segment is made up of the elderly challenged by arthritis or simple weakness in the hands. Easy-open cans have a special appeal to this segment and will cause its members to give preference to canned food products that are easy to open.

RELATED ASSOCIATIONS & ORGANIZATIONS

The Aluminum Association, Inc., http://www.aluminum.org

American Beverage Association, http://www.ameribev.org/index.aspx

American Iron and Steel Institute, http://www.steel.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

The Beer Institute, http://www.beerinst.org

Can Manufacturers Institute, http://www.cancentral.com/index.cfm

Canned Food Alliance, http://www.mealtime.org

Composite Can & Tube Institute, http://www.cctiwdc.org

National Paint & Coatings Association, http://www.paint.org

Packaging Machinery Manufacturing Institute, http://www.packexpo.com

Women in Packaging Inc., http://www.womeninpackaging.org

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Toto, DeAnne. "A Can-do Attitude: The Metal Can's Reputation For Recyclability and Energy Efficiency Keeps It a Popular Choice for Food and Beverage Packaging." Recycling Today. January 2006.

see also Canned Foods