Can—the future: Tin cans, the better alternative to plastics
Over several sessions and a panel discussion, the speakers addressed everything from recyclability and innovation to supply chain gaps, safety standards, and policy shifts in India and abroad.
09 Apr 2025 | By Sai Deepthi P
Speakers and panellists at the MCMA seminar
On day two of the Inter FoodTech, Snack & Bake Tec, and Pac MechEx, experts and veterans from the metal manufacturing industry came together for a seminar to discuss how tin cans can be an alternative to plastics, with the world looking for sustainable packaging options.
The Metal Container Manufacturers’ Association (MCMA) hosted the seminar at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai. During the welcome address, Sanjay Bhatia, president of MCMA, touched upon a study which projected specialty cans would reach a market size of USD 646-billion by 2025, and is projected to almost double in the next 10 years. Sales are expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 5% over the next 10 years. “I strongly feel and believe that the man who wins is the one who thinks he can,” Bhatia’s words set the tone for the rest of the session.
"Metal Packaging doesn't just protect what's inside- it preserves the environment outside as it is a commitment to a circular future, where nothing goes to waste," noted Venu Ayyar, associate director of MCMA and the organiser of the event.
Over several sessions and a panel discussion, the speakers addressed everything from recyclability and innovation to supply chain gaps, safety standards, and policy shifts in India and abroad. We decided to categorise the sessions by each speaker into a SWOT analysis under the four strategic lenses: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the metal manufacturing industry.
Strengths
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Ujjal Chakraborti, executive in charge of tinplate division, Tata Steel
Ujjal Chakraborti brought in his perspective from one of India’s largest multinational corporations — Tata Steel. With Tata Consumer Goods shifting to tinplate packaging for various products, their tinplate division is a major player in the metal packaging industry. He emphasised macro-level opportunities, global competitiveness, and innovation.
Speaking about the strengths of metal packaging, he noted how steel is infinitely recyclable, a property that's unmatched in the packaging world, supports both circular economy goals and long-term sustainability. Not just that, cans are now 30% lighter, meaning there is a reduction in material usage and an improvement in cost-effectiveness. The industry is also shifting toward high-strength steel (above 560 MPa) to allow for deeper drawing and better forming, great for complex packaging needs.
Tinplate offers complete barrier protection, making it ideal for volatile products like paints, lubricants, and food with long shelf-life requirements. It can also withstand high heat (up to 500° Celcius), unlike many plastic alternatives, making it a robust and safe option for packaging that undergoes intense processes like retorting or sterilisation.
To unlock India’s untapped potential, Tata is working to close this gap with R&D, collaboration, and ecosystem development.
Weaknesses
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S Sreenatha, vice president of manufacturing, Easy Openends
S Sreenatha candidly addressed the systemic weaknesses holding back growth and innovation in metal can manufacturing. A major weakness is the obsession with price negotiations across the food and non-food segments. Buyers are heavily focused on driving down costs rather than investing in quality improvements, which discourages manufacturers from upgrading materials or trying advanced coating and printing options. Despite the availability of advanced grades of tinplate, many brands continue using older or thicker materials, ignoring opportunities for optimisation.
Sreenatha highlighted the difference between countries like Thailand, Japan, and India when it comes to the adoption and innovation of metal cans in packaging. “India has not even made stackable cans, which makes cans unfavourable to department store owners. Brands underutilise the design and aesthetic potential of tinplate packaging,” he adds.
India lacks a cohesive ecosystem for metal packaging as there is insufficient collaboration between fillers, packaging converters, and material suppliers. He stressed on how each link in the chain works in silos, potential synergies in productivity, innovation, and cost-sharing are not realised.
He urged institutions like IITs and other multinational corporations to introduce specialised courses and training centres in can making and quality control.
Opportunities
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Alain D’Haese, general secretary, European Aerosol Federation (FEA)
Alain D’Haese highlighted the emerging global shift toward circular packaging systems, stricter regulation of harmful substances, and the need for realignment in the Indian packaging industry, if it wants to export or stay competitive globally.
The European Union (EU) mandates that all packaging must be recyclable by 2030. This opens opportunities for Indian manufacturers to upgrade packaging designs for circularity, invest in recyclable metal packaging solutions, and align with the EU’s “A, B, C recyclability grades”, coming into effect from 2028.
For the first time, EU packaging laws are including waste prevention, which aims to reduce packaging generation by 15%, encourage lightweighting, volume minimisation, and reuse models. He said that reuse is being prioritized over recycling in the EU, and Indian companies can tap into EU-backed funding or collaboration programs for reuse models.
Threats
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Sowmya Nair, technical laboratory manager, Envirocare Labs
Sowmya Nair spoke of threats holding the metal manufacturing industry back. Speaking from the perspective of chemical testing, her talk focused heavily on what can go wrong with metal packaging, especially for food products, and why rigorous testing is non-negotiable.
She highlighted how the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s 2016 survey found lead contamination in canned foods due to soldering, and tin contamination in acidic foods like tomato or pineapple purées. Many manufacturers skip or under-prioritise proper testing of packaging materials. Key migration tests (e.g., with 3% acetic acid for acidic foods, 10% ethanol for beverages, or water for neutral foods) are often not performed rigorously.
Improper storage conditions (humidity, temperature), low-quality metal, or inadequate surface coatings can cause rusting, cracks, and swelling of cans. There’s insufficient awareness about how different foods interact with metals, especially acidic foods (like tomatoes) can corrode tin coatings.
A panel discussion moderated by Ritesh Mathur, founder of F2F Food and Beverage Consultants, brought together key industry voices: Amit Agrawal, chief marketing and sales officer at Tata Steel; Kaushal Vora, managing director of Massilly India Packaging; Kartik Nayak, joint managing director of Shetron; and Subhaprada Nishtala, founder, Food Adroit. The conversation centered on tinplate packaging and its role in sustainability, the bottomline being that cost remains the primary barrier for brands considering the switch.
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“We are very well poised today for a return of the can as a superhero of packaging. The recyclability of cans brings in the power to make it a more environmentally sustainable solution,” noted Nishtala. Vora emphasised the importance of long-term commitment, stating, “You need to look at value creation. What need it serves, and what is the perceived value for the customer.” Meanwhile, Kartik Nayak shared how his company is exploring new markets by developing ways to package temple prasadams in cans—another untapped opportunity for the sector. Amit Agrawal echoed the need for progress saying, “If we see the trend, the consumer is not going to wait. We need to bring in technology. We need to bring capacity. Otherwise, nobody is going to go to can.”
An interesting annectode came out of the audience interaction when quality of the tin cans were being dicussed. There was a broad consensus that the responsibility lies with manufacturers to say no to degrading the quality of canned products in order to bring down costs. “When the top corporates say we need cost reduction, we need to say no beyond this point,” remarked Om Agarwal from caps and containers industries. Vora, in agreement, encouraged consumers to provide feedback to brands about product quality. Further, as an assignment, he asked the audience to compare the quality of cans used for soft drinks today with those from ten years ago to understand how brands constantly look for ways to cut costs.
Ashok Kulkarni, managing director of Kaira Can ended the session with a vote of thanks, and in attendance were other MCMA members like Purushottam Patel, who shared his valuable inputs with the industry leaders.