Translator: This is CanTech's senior expert David Hayes, reporting on the status quo and potential of China's can making industry. At present, many canned enterprises in China still use self-provided cans. This is unreasonable from the perspective of resource allocation. With the passage of time, many canned enterprises no longer bring empty cans. Therefore, the development of food cans will have great market potential. The advancement of can making technology by professional can-making enterprises is crucial to the development of the canning industry, and often plays a decisive role in the quality and grade of canned foods. Although the reported data may be somewhat inaccurate. For example, the production of self-provided empty cans by various canning companies may not be included in the statistics; there may also be errors in the reports on the production volume and production capacity of some companies, but the translator believes that this article has certain reference value. This article has analyzed the beverage cans, beer cans, food cans and miscellaneous cans. The translators will introduce the beverage cans and food cans to the readers for reference.
Mr. David Hayes reported that China’s sustained and rapid economic growth has boosted the demand for canned food in some of the major cities in the southeastern provinces. Although the annual growth rate of canned food consumption is still lower than the economic growth rate, can makers optimistically predict that the metal can packaging industry will continue to develop until the 2008 Olympic Games.
According to the China Metal Packaging Association, China produces about 17.5 billion sets of empty cans each year, of which 60% are three-piece cans and 40% are two-piece cans. In the past few years, the growth of three-piece cans has exceeded that of two-piece cans because the cost of aluminum has constrained the market for two-piece cans and canned foods have continued to grow.
Beverage cans
The annual production capacity of two aluminum cans in China is about 10.5 billion sets. According to statistics from the state, the 19 two-piece aluminum can plants produce about 7 billion empty cans per year, which means that 30% of production capacity is still not being realized. Of course, the actual situation in the province and the province will also be different. 70% of the two aluminum cans are used for filling soft drinks, mainly carbonated drinks, and the rest are used for filling beer.
Guangdong, China's fastest-growing province, is the country’s largest two-piece can production center with an estimated annual production of 3 billion sets, but its production capacity is close to 6 billion sets, and is mainly sold to beverage companies in Guangdong and neighboring provinces.
Beijing and Shanghai are two other important two-piece can production centers. The other two cans are scattered in Hebei, Shandong and other places. In China, Ball is the largest manufacturer of two-piece cans. It has five factories in different locations and controls 40% of production. The other two-piece can makers that set up factories in China include Crown, Rexam and Taiwan Dahua. They also produce three cans in China.
It is predicted that the consumption of non-alcoholic beverages will grow in the future, and Coca-Cola has announced that it will open a new bottling plant in China. China's canned tea drinks and plant functional beverages have opened up successful markets in Japan and Taiwan, which is also a growth point.
Three food and beverage cans
China's three-piece cans are ahead of the two-piece cans. Pot foods include fruits, vegetables, fish and meat. For example, many sources of Japanese food companies come from China because of the low cost of production in China.
Statistics show that China produces 10.5 billion three-piece cans per year, of which 40% are beverage cans, 10% are food cans, and the rest are edible oil cans, spray cans, vehicle oil cans and miscellaneous cans.
In the early 1990s, most of the three-piece can factories were state-owned or joint ventures, but now they are mostly joint ventures or private companies. After experiencing bankruptcy due to quality or management problems, only a few state-owned enterprises have survived.
About 20% of joint venture investors come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. In order to reduce costs, some of these companies have moved to the south of China. In the early 1990s, due to the boom in beverages, many three-piece can factories produced beverage cans. The products included coconut milk, almond milk, orange juice, mango juice, and oolong tea. The main tank types are 250ml and 350ml. Red Bull is one of the new varieties entering the market. The main packaging is also three-piece cans.
In China, when the market share of three-piece can beverages declined, the use of food and miscellaneous cans increased again. The 30-40 state-owned three-piece can companies are located in coastal provinces with developed economies. Some of them are small in scale and there are also some large successful enterprises. In the past 10 years, most three-piece tank companies have invested in private companies in China. They are more able to afford lower returns than foreign investors, and Orking Capital is one of them.
ORG has four manufacturing companies in three cities. It is one of the largest three-piece can makers in China. The company has eight production lines, an annual production capacity of 700 million units, and an additional four “T†printing lines. 7 bottom cover production lines, of which 7 lines produce food or beverage cans, and one can line produces special tin containers.
Origen was founded in 1995, Hainan Origen Packaging Industry Company (in Hainan Province), Beijing Origen Metal Containers and Company Beijing Origen Printing Technology Company (in Beijing), Linyi Origen Can Making Co., Ltd. (in Shandong). The company’s largest factory is in Beijing. It is a joint venture with Singapore’s Meitec in 1997. The factory has 3 can-making lines, 4 bottom cover lines, a printing line, and a T-lay line, producing 250 million sets of blanks each year. Cans, in addition to factories in Hainan and Shandong, produce 150 million empty cans annually.
In China, canned foods such as luncheon meat and Chinese-style fish are mainly supplied to the domestic market. Citrus, tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus and bamboo shoots are mainly used for export. A large number of color printing tanks have also added a beautiful landscape to the already-improved urban construction.