US-based Ball Corp commissions aerosol can plant in Sanand.

American packaging solutions provider Ball Corporation recently announced commissioning of its manufacturing facility at Sanand in Gujarat. With an initial manufacturing capacity of 50 million aerosol cans, the company eyes Rs 65 crore revenues on the initial investment of Rs 120 crore.

The company further plans to add six more lines of production over the next five-ten years, with an investment of Rs 530 crore to achieve the full capacity of 300 million cans per annum.The plant, set up in Sanand, will supply 70 per cent of its production to domestic customers, mostly deodorant makers, while 30 per cent of the production will be exported. The newly built plant will be inaugurated recently. At full capacity, the company will consume, 7000-8000 tonnes of aluminium per annum.The Indian aerosol can market is estimated at about 400 million cans per annum, which is growing at double digit rate.

'Looking at the growth of Indian market, there is good potential for business to grow,' said Sebastien Gaspari Director - Business Strategy, Ball Aerocan, Europe.The company had acquired the land in August 2014 and groundbreaking was conducted in October that year.

'We will have senior minister of Gujarat government Saurabh Patel to inaugurate the plant on Friday,' said Ajith Kumar, head - operations of the company in India.Having the global sales of $8.6 billion and $8.5 billion market cap of the NYSE-listed company, Ball Corporation supplies one billion cans to its customers in the beverages, food and household and aerospace segment.

HBL