Colorado-headquartered aluminum packaging producer Ball Corporation continues to expand production across North America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and South America to meet the growing demand for aluminum beverage cans.
According to the company’s Q2 2021 earnings release, Ball started two more production lines at its Glendale, Arizona plant along with two lines at the new plant in Pittston, Pennsylvania during the quarter. The Bowling Green, Kentucky plant will also begin production by the end of 2021.
During H1, the Beverage Packaging division posted revenue of $2.8bn and a profit of $233mn, compared with a $335mn profit on revenue of $2.4bn in the same period last year. In this segment, Q2 2021 profits rose by 2pc to $193mn from $189mn in Q2 2020.
In EMEA, the beverage packaging division posted a two-fold profit of $224mn in H1 2021against $131mn in the first six months of 2020. Q2 profits also doubled to $124mn against $63mn in the prior-year period. The company is focused on increasing capacity in the UK and Russia to meet demand in this region.
In South America, the packaging division’s output increased by 15pc during Q2 2021. This led to $452mn in revenue, compared with $329mn in Q2 2020. Profits rose by 56pc in H1 2021 to $171mn and 69pc in Q2 2021 to $78mn in the respective annual comparisons. The Frutal, Brazil site will begin multi-line production in H2 2021 as well.
Ball’s Aerospace division posted a $69mn profit, with revenue of $883mn in H1 2021, against $70mn in profit and $870mn in revenue during H1 2020. For the second quarter, profits increased to $34mn from $30mn in Q2 2020. This division’s order backlog stood at $3bn at the end of June.
In the first half of 2021, net profit quadrupled to $402mn against $117mn in H1 2020. The company posted consolidated sales worth $3.5bn and a net profit of $202mn in Q2 2021 compared with $2.8bn in sales and a profit of $94mn in the prior-year period.