Ball Corporation on June 20 announced plans for replacing the beverage can manufacturing volume it lost in Europe when a fire heavily damaged its plant in Hassloch, Germany, on April 1.
Prior to the fire, the Hassloch plant produced approximately 2 billion 33cl and 50cl steel beverage cans annually. Ball plans to rebuild the Hassloch facility as a two-line plant capable of producing 1.3 billion steel beverage cans annually. At the same time, Ball will add a second production line in its plant in
The total cost of the two projects to replace the Hassloch production volume is estimated to be approximately 90 million euros and is expected to be largely covered by insurance proceeds. Much of the necessary design work has been completed. Initial production is expected by the end of the first quarter of 2007.
"Demand for beverage cans in Europe continues to grow, with industry shipments up in excess of 7 percent thus far in 2006 over the same period last year," said R. David Hoover, chairman, president and CEO of Ball Corporation. "In
"By rebuilding in Hassloch and adding capacity in Hermsdorf we have the continued benefit of the highly skilled workforces that have produced excellent performance at those facilities in the past,"
Ball Corporation is a supplier of metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and employs 15,600 people worldwide.
