November 28: Rexam, the world’s leading beverage can manufacturer, will have spent £278 million (US$411m) on new production capacity in Europe between 2006 and 2009, but that will only just enable it to maintain a 45 percent share of one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide.
Bill Barker, its group director of beverage cans, told a seminar for financial analysts yesterday in London that even with this level of investment Rexam would be operating at a utilisation rate of between 97 and 98 percent next year, “where the ideal is 96 percent”.
Last year beverage can demand in Europe grew by more than 10 percent to reach 45.5 billion units and this year is expected to almost match that level with a year-end total of almost 50 billion.
Some analysts have said that this growth cannot continue, but Barker detailed where the growth would come from, saying that the investments were “within our medium term growth rate of six to eight percent”.
“This is not overbuilding capacity for Europe,” he said.
