Crown Holdings, Inc. is to establish a beverage can plant in Belem, Brazil via its Brazilian subsidiary Crown Embalagens S.A. Crown Holdings is a leading supplier of metal packaging products worldwide.

The plant will produce two-piece aluminum beverage cans in multiple sizes and is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2012. The new plant will have an initial annual capacity of 1 billion cans and be designed to support additional production lines as future market needs require.

Raymond L. McGowan, President of Crown’s Americas Division, noted that Belém, with a population of over 2 million people is strategically located at the entrance to the Amazon region. It is an ideal location from which to expand to meet growing customer demand for beer and soft drink cans, he said.

Crown has been operating in Brazil since 1942 and has two-piece aluminum beverage can plants in Cabreúva, Estância and Ponta Grossa and a beverage end plant in Manaus. The Company is in the process of adding additional beverage can lines at its Estância and Ponta Grossa plants. When all of these projects are commercialized, Crown will have annual production capacity of 7.5 billion cans in Brazil.

Crown Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is a leading supplier of packaging products to consumer marketing companies around the world. World headquarters are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Other than Crown Holdings investment, Packaging giant Ball as well announced plans to build a new beverage can plant in Brazil as part of its wider growth strategy to expand further in emerging markets.

Ball announced that Latapack-Ball Embalagens, the company’s majority-owned beverage can joint venture in Brazil, plans to open a factory in Alagoinhas, Bahia. The plant will initially operate one manufacturing line for multiple aluminum can sizes, and is expected to start up in early 2012.

Raymond J. Seabrook, executive vice president and chief operating officer of global packaging operations said the beverage can continues its strong growth in Brazil, and Alagoinhas is located in northeast Brazil, one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Ball also recently added a second production line to its Tres Rios plant in Brazil during the first quarter of 2011.

Seabrook said that increasing demand for specialty sizes in Brazil was providing additional opportunities for the can business.