Asia Pacific Metal Cans Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The APAC Metal Cans Market is expected to register a CAGR of 4.4% for the forecast period 2021-2026. The food and beverage industry with a major share in the metal can packaging market is witnessing huge demand amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as the industry falls under the essential commodity. The lockdown enforced across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic has bought a significant change in human consumption habits. There has been an increasing demand for packaged food products, meat, vegetables, and fruits, among others.

Key Highlights

• Of all the different kinds of metal packages, such as cans, drums, bottles, caps, and closures, cans have been the most popular. Ease of use and availability aided in the adoption of metal cans in several packaging applications over the last century.
• Consumer trends, such as a preference for small-size and multi-pack packaging formats, are supporting the volume growth of the global metal cans market.
• An increasing demand for mini-cans has been observed, especially in the Asia-Pacific markets, such as India, China, and Japan. Therefore, most of the beverage companies in the region are offering mini-cans, which generally contain smaller volumes of a products and cost less than the traditional canned products.
• This trend is resulting in more substantial unit consumption. Furthermore, with the increasing environmental concerns, consumers are demanding metal cans, owing to their low environmental impact. The high recyclability of metal cans is one of the significant drivers for the market studied in some regions, while in other regions, economic conditions and low price of canned goods remain key drivers for the market studied.
• Furthermore, numerous innovations, pertaining to manufacturing procedures, shapes, sizes, and smart packaging, are helping the manufacturers of metal cans to keep up with the current market trends. Clean surfaces that provide a wide range of multi-stage printing and labeling solutions are attracting many marketing innovations.
• For example, Hindustan Tin Works Ltd, based out of India, offers its general line cans that are made out oftin and not only offer highest barrier properties from oxygen, moisture, and bacteria, but also act as excellent barriers from rodents and other pests to ensure that the products are safe inside the pack till it is finally consumed.

Key Market Trends

Canned Food to dominate market share

• The growing trend in the canned food market is innovations in packaging. With an increase in demand for chemical-free canned foods, manufacturers are focusing on innovations in packaging. Many brands of canned food products have started offering food in BPA-free containers.
• The demand for sealed and tamper-proof steel container food is high, as they protect food from harmful bacteria. Also, due to hectic and busy lifestyles of consumers, canned food is expected to gain more importance.
• Canned foods have high nutritious value and require less preparation time, this factor will play a role in boosting the market growth. Moreover due to an increase in the disposable income and change in food preferences many consumers are preferring canned foods which will play a role in increasing its demand hence augmenting the market growth
• Due to innovations in packaging, less preparation time and free from harmful bacteria, the canned food product is a good source of nutrients and will enhance the growth of metal can market in future.

India to Witness Significant Growth

• In the beverages segment, soft drinks are considered to beprime adopters of metal cans for packaging solutions. The Indian soft drink market may continue its growth trajectory, as the annual per-capita bottle consumption is expected to reach around 84 by 2021, according to a report by PepsiCo India's bottling partner Varun Beverages Ltd.
• The plastic packaging growth is expected to be affected by the recent regulation on the ban of single-use plastics, which is expected to be enforced in the future once the discussion with all the stakeholders gets concluded. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is in the process of reviewing the ban on the use of single-use plastic materials to accommodate the use of eco-friendly alternatives.
• With the growth of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage market in the country, the demand for metal can package is expected to increase significantly in the country. For instance, according to the Craft Brewers Association of India, the number of microbreweries in India galloped from 20 to 120 in the past five years.
• The consortium, called the Aluminum Beverage Can Association of India (ABCAI), advocates replacing plastic and glass with aluminum as packaging material. Moreover, the use of aluminum cans in the country is 5%, and the association’s objective is to help its growth to reach about 25% by 2030.
• Moreover, the proliferation in the beer market by newer companies in the country is helping the Indian metal can segment. Ball Corporations also provides metal cans that meet the requirement of beverage products, with an annual capacity of 1.3 billion cans in India. According to the Ball Corporation, the consumption in India is less than one can per capita, which presents a massive opportunity for metal packaging providers to tap into the emerging market.

Competitive Landscape

The Asia Pacific Metal Cans market is moderately competitive with few firms enjoying dominant market share and few new entrants. The firms keep on innovating and entering into strategic partnerships in order to retain their market share.

• January 2020 - Ball Corporation launched a new impact extruded aluminum bottle line that provides a circular solution to plastic pollution. With various shapes and sizes, this impact extruded aluminum bottle can be customized for numerous beauty, personal care, food, and beverage products. Unlike other substrates in these categories, which include plastic shampoo jars or bottles for cosmetics, Ball's aluminum bottles could be recycled countless times and repeatedly turned into other aluminum products.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support