The global aluminum products maker Ball closed a Seattle-area factory last year, but wants to keep a toehold in the Northwest.
President Donald Trump’s sudden imposition of a 25% tariff on imported aluminum came days after a global packaging manufacturer announced plans to build a can factory in Oregon.
Colorado-based Ball Corp. didn’t return requests for comment but the transcript of a recent earnings call shows it hopes to reestablish a presence in the Pacific Northwest after closing a Kent, Wash., can manufacturing plant in early 2024.
“I’ve said repeatedly that we didn’t want to abandon the Northwest marketplace permanently,” CEO Dan Fisher told investors.
Fisher also discussed Ball’s recent acquisition of Winter Haven-based Florida Can Manufacturing for $160 million.
The moves were reported by Packaging Dive.
At the time the Kent plant was shuttered, it employed 121 people and was a key production hub for Ball. Fisher said the new facilities in the Northwest and Southeast will help lower shipping costs by aligning operations to meet customer growth and regional demand. The company might also benefit from “anti-plastic sentiment” in the Pacific Northwest, he said.
Founded in 1888 as a maker of home canning supplies, including jars and lids, Ball is today the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum cans. Around one in three canned beverages in the world is sold in a Ball product. The company maintains more than 100 facilities around the world; its Golden, Colo. plant alone produces 6 million cans per day.
Ball employs 16,000 people worldwide and made $11.8 billion in 2024. Though the company performed well last year, according to SEC filings, it was hurt by a customer boycott of one of its largest clients, Anheuser-Busch, which manufactures Bud Light.
The company hasn’t commented on Trump’s planned 25% aluminum tariff but when the president imposed a 10% aluminum tariff in 2018, former Ball CEO John Hayes co-wrote an op-ed in the Denver Post critical of the move.
“Put simply, this tariff is not making America great again,” Hayes wrote alongside former Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter. “It’s likely going to cause job losses and increased prices and that’s a losing proposition for everyone.”
Ball reps also announced in the earnings call they will pursue “alternatives” for the company’s underperforming aluminum cup operation. The cups are intended as a sustainable alternative to the plastic variety at stadiums and other large venues. But development of a profitable business model was hampered by the pandemic and ultimately, the venture was described in the call as a $40 million drag on annual sales.
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