Ball Corp to open $40m production line

Ball Corp to open $40m production line

By Tim McLaughlin   |   Monday, 26 May 2014

Beverage container producer Ball Corporation is set to break ground on a production facility in Myanmar later this summer hoping to capitalise on the country's growing drink manufacturing sector.

A Myanmar woman takes a can of Coca-Cola from a shelf at a supermarket in Yangon on September, 2012. Photo: AFP

The one-line plant located outside of Yangon is scheduled to be operational by mid-2015. The investment will be around US$40 million, a spokesperson for the company told The Myanmar Times. The local company that will work with Ball on the project has not been announced.

"The demand for beverage containers in Southeast Asia is expected to continue to grow significantly over the coming years," said John Hayes, Ball's chair and CEO, who described Myanmar as a "high potential" market in a statement released by the company.

The facility will produce containers for Coca-Cola Pinya Beverages, which opened a bottling factory in June of last year, as well as local and international beverage producers, though which ones were not specified.

The announcement comes as international soft drink and beer manufacturers continue to ramp up Myanmar operations looking to compete with local brands that have long dominated the largely closed market.

In March PepsiCo opened its first bottling plant in Myanmar since it pulled out of the country in 1997.

Danish brewer Carlsberg broke ground on a production facility north of Yangon in Bago Region in October 2013 after signing a joint venture with Myanmar Golden Star (MGS) in February. The brewery is slated to open this year.

Carlsberg was followed in May by Dutch rival Heineken, which is constructing its own $60 million brewery, also aiming for an opening later this year.

The Broomfield, Colorado-based Ball Corporation was most recently active in Southeast Asian in 2011 when it signed a joint venture with Thai Beverage Can Limited to construct a beverage can manufacturing plant in Vietnam. The plant began production in 2012.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/ball-corp-to-open-40m-production-line/