Expect more innovation from the monobloc can sector

摘要

How low can we go? It's a question can-makers and aluminium processors are asking, since making great strides since the 1970s to reduce the weight of beverage cans. They've cut aluminium can weight by more than a third, but reductions have slowed in the last 15 years.There is a cost issue: If research and development only shaves fractions of an ounce, it's difficult to justify. E&D lowered the average 12oz can weight by a third in the 25 years from 1978 to 1998, from 0.72 ounces (20.4 grams) to 0.48 oz (13.7g), but it's changed little since.Today's typical beverage can weighs 0.46 oz (13.1g), and canmakers produce about 3,500 cans per 100 pounds of aluminium compared with just 2,200 cans in 1973.