Novelis Inc. has signed a new anchor customer contract with aluminum can maker Ball Corporation in North America. Under the contract, Novelis will supply aluminum sheet to Ball can making plants in North America.
With this contract and other commitments, Novelis has secured all of the beverage can capacity from its new plant in Bay Minette, Alabama, underscoring the strong demand for the company’s high-recycled-content beverage can sheet. The new plant, expected to begin commissioning in 2025, will be the first fully integrated aluminum manufacturing plant built in the U.S. in nearly 40 years and will have an initial capacity of 600,000 tons of finished goods primarily for the North American beverage can and automotive markets.
“Securing contracts for beverage can production capacity at Bay Minette two years before the plant is expected to be completed demonstrates our customers’ confidence in our ability to plan, construct and operate our new plant in Alabama,” said Steve Fisher, president and chief executive officer of Novelis.
The agreement between Novelis and Ball advances both companies’ sustainability commitments by including closed-loop recycling and joint efforts to improve beverage can recycling. Through closed-loop recycling programs, Novelis directly takes back the manufacturing scrap generated during the can-making process and recycles it into new can sheet, which is then made into new beverage cans. In addition to this continuous loop, Novelis recycles more than 82 billion used beverage cans per year into new aluminum for beverage packaging. These efforts result in lower-carbon products, as recycling aluminum requires only 5 percent of the energy used to make primary aluminum, resulting in 95 percent less carbon emissions.
Novelis expects global demand for aluminum beverage can sheet to grow at a 3 percent compounded annual growth rate from 2022 to 2031. The demand growth is driven by consumer preference for more sustainable products and size variety, as well as more beverage types being packaged in cans.