Demand for cans was unprecedented in 2020 — and it hasn’t slowed in 2021.
The shortage has impacted brewers both small and large. Even Anheuser-Busch InBev referenced the can shortage in its second quarter earnings call last week. “We had to import a lot of cans from several different markets, cans from Mexico, cans from China, cans from Europe and India in order to serve the high demand,” chief executive Michel Doukeris told Reuters in a telephone interview, referring to the U.S. market.
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In the meantime, some brewers have turned to bottles. Others are slapping new labels on empty cans stamped with beer varieties they no longer sell.
Hopefully the situation will improve soon. Scott McCarty, a spokesman for Ball, said the company is adding new production lines and building three new plants that are expected to add at least “6 billion units of can capacity.”
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