September 07, 2008

Steel packaging sales in Brazil in 2008 to go up

BNamericas reported that Brazilian steel packaging association Abeaço expects sales volume to expand by 4% this year to 603,000 tonnes compared to 580,000 tonnes in 2007.

Ms Thaís Fagury executive advisor of Abeaço said that "Sales in the steel packaging sector in the first half of 2007 alone rose by 3.5%, while the growth of other packaging sectors grew some 2.7% in the period."

Ms Fagury said that increased activity in Brazil's civil construction segment last year led to a rise in sales of paint, a sector in which steel packaging has a 96% market share. Demand for paint by the civil construction segment will continue to grow throughout 2008. She added that the need for steel packaging will also come this year from the local food and beverage industries, among others.

Abeaço was founded in 2003 and boasts members such as Brazilian steelmaker CSN and local can manufacturers CBL and Bertol. CSN is the sole producer of tinplate in Brazil, the material used to manufacture the packaging.