08/27/2008 17h26
Aluminum can production grows 11%
Valor Econômico - 08/27/2008
The manufacturers of beverage cans showed a performance exceeding what was the expected in the first semester of this year. According to data of Abralatas, sales of small cans grew 11.3% from January to June this year, in comparison with the same period of 2007, amounting to 6 billion units, above even the production growth, which was 11.1%, to 6.4 billion. Executive director of the entity, Renault de Freitas Castro, affirmed that the initial forecast of the entity was of an 8% growth over last year's results, when sales amounted to 12.2 thousand units, a 13.5% high over the preceding year. "We started 2008 with caution , expecting small heating, as a reflex of the world economy, but up until (l) now we have not seen that, quite the opposite, the first semester came very strong, even being usually a weaker period for the sector" he said. Despite the positive signals, Abralatas did not redo the forecasts for the year, although it admits that there are no signs of deceleration up until now. "The increase of income and the migration of the D class families to the C class has raised the consumption of beverages and, consequently, has increased the demand for cans", affirmed Rinaldo Lopes, president of Crown Embalagens. The company, which currently has a production capacity of 2.4 billion cans per year in its new plant of Cabreúva (SP) and 2.8 billion caps in the unit of Manaus, is investing US$ 55 million in the construction of a new unit, in the state of Sergipe, which will expand the company's capacity by nearly 30% starting the first quarter of next year, when the plant will start working. Abralatas has not detailed the data per segment of demand yet, but Castro evaluates that the Dry Law may have even improved the Sales of aluminum cans. "Perhaps beer in cans have started been in the preference, mainly for domestic consumption, but we do not have this confirmation yet."
