Owner of assets of Ball that departed from Russia resumes construction of aluminum can plant in Ulyanovsk

MOSCOW. Dec 7 (Interfax) - Arnest Group, the new owner of the Russian assets of Ball Corporation, which left Russia, has decided to resume the construction of a plant for producing aluminum beverage cans in Russia's Ulyanovsk region, the group said in a press release.

The Ball Corporation halted its investment in the project in March. The new owner is planning to launch the plant by the end of 2023. The total investment in the project will exceed 10 billion rubles.

The plant with an area of more than 37,000 sq. meters will be located in the Zavolzhye industrial zone. It will be equipped with high-speed innovative equipment, which allows producing up to 2,000 aluminum cans per minute. The total output capacity will be more than 1.5 billion cans per year after reaching the design capacity. There are plans to create up to 200 jobs at the plant.

The Ulyanovsk plant will be the fourth production facility for aluminum beverage packaging in Russia, belonging to Arnest Group, along with the facilities in Argayash, Chelyabinsk region, in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad region, and in Naro-Fominsk, Moscow region. The commissioning of the fourth facility will make it possible to fully meet the current and future demand of the Russian beverage industry in aluminum cans, the press release said.

As reported, the group acquired Ball Corporation's facilities in September 2022, following the latter's announcement that it was withdrawing from the Russian market and suspending investments. According to Ball, the deal totaled $530 million.

Ball's Russian business accounted for about 4% of the company's total revenue in 2021 (amounted to $13.8 billion) and 8% of its operating profit. The plants in Russia produced about 5% of the world's supply of beverage cans (a total of 112.5 billion cans).