While this decline was spread across all three market sectors — light metal packaging, steel drums and similar containers, and other containers (of a capacity exceeding 300 litres — it was most substantial in the light metal packaging category.
The inflation rate has restricted consumer purchasing power, which has limited sales potential in the retail-orientated, light metal packaging sector.
Additionally, the economic recovery is also damaging the market for canned beer, with consumers increasingly going out to socialise rather than at home.
Furthermore, light metal packaging is increasingly being threatened by innovative plastic packaging solutions. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles already dominate the soft drinks market in the UK, while the development of products such as plastic cans, for both food, and general use goods such as paint, represents a sizeable long-term threat.
“It is therefore unsurprising that the market for metal and aerosol packaging declined for the second consecutive year in 2013. However, it is important to emphasise that the use of metal packaging does provide some unique benefits, contributing to a fairly robust sales platform,” read the report.
Aluminium and steel can both be recycled multiple times, and over the next five years, the UK market for metal packaging will need to exploit this – with one avenue for growth being the demand for premium metal packaging.
But high energy prices, fluctuating input costs and the threat of plastic packaging solutions will restrict potential growth. “Key Note therefore forecasts modest growth of 5.2% between 2014 and 2018.”
