Aluminum Can Recycling Is Critical to U.S. Supply Chain and Industry Sustainability

U.S. aluminum beverage can imports have grown substantially in recent years to meet new demand patterns in the region. U.S. aluminum beverage can imports are seen as unsustainable compared to domestic supply. Investments in domestic canning capacity and recycling infrastructure can reverse this trend.

CMI chairman Robert Budway said the association's member companies were working with customers to balance capacity and demand.

"CMI expects beverage can manufacturers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in meeting customer demand by 2023, an increase of more than 40% over 2020 unit production," Budway said in a statement. "According to the announcement, CMI members have committed to Opening of eight new aluminum can manufacturing plants. CMI members are also increasing production at four additional locations.”

Oliver Graham, chief executive of beverage can maker Ardagh Metal Packaging, said the beverage can industry would take "a few years to catch up with current demand levels" but would eventually regain some market share occupied by imported products.

"Imports are definitely going to be replaced by domestic supply because imports are very uneconomical from a dollar perspective, and from a sustainability perspective, when you think about the extra freight and CO2 for shipping empty tanks around the world, Importing is very inappropriate."

As of October this year, the U.S. imported 10.8 billion cans in 2021, compared with 2 billion in 2019 and 7.6 billion in 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

After reaching 1 billion cans in 2010, imports did not exceed 1 billion cans in any year from 2011 to 2017.

"You really don't want to ship empty aluminum cans halfway around the world." "The fact that we'll be importing about 15 billion cans this year is incredible, given the added cost and logistical issues of canning."

Constellium chief financial officer Peter Matt said environmental, social and governance trends, as well as growth in aluminium demand and production capacity, should boost investment in aluminium recycling.

"When you look at the growth in end markets that we're seeing, as we produce more aluminum for those end markets, there's going to be more scrap that needs to be recycled," Matt said on Constellium's third-quarter earnings call. ."

Paris-based Constellium has several U.S. plants that make rolled aluminum products for a variety of industries, including the beverage can industry.