Producer
Ball Corporation
World's largest aluminum beverage can manufacturer (NYSE: BALL); ~$11.8B revenue 2024. Primary product is aluminum beverage cans for beer, carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks, and hard seltzer; also manufactures aluminum aerosol containers and food cans. While Ball is not as concentrated in pet food cans as Silgan, Ball's massive scale in aluminum beverage can sheet procurement means it competes directly with pet food can manufacturers for aluminum sheet supply. Ball told investors in 2020 that the US was short 10 billion cans — a shortage attributed partly to beverage demand surge during COVID that consumed aluminum sheet capacity intended for food cans. Ball was the most visible face of the 2020-2021 aluminum can shortage. Sold its aerospace division in 2024 to BAE Systems for $5.6B.
2
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
2
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
2 inputs Ball Corporation supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Ball Corporation makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
2 facilities
Ball Corporation Olympia Beverage Can Plant →
USOlympia, Washington · manufacturing
Ball's Pacific Northwest aluminum beverage can plant; part of Ball's network that during 2020-2021 was operating at maximum capacity to meet beverage demand. Ball's beverage can plants consume aluminum sheet from the same suppliers (Novelis, Constellium) that supply food can sheet to Silgan and Crown — making Ball's capacity utilization directly relevant to pet food can supply availability.
Ball Corporation Pittston Pennsylvania Aluminum Can Plant →
USPennsylvania · manufacturing
New multi-line plant opened mid-2021 in response to pandemic aluminum can shortage; 230 jobs; supplies food and pet food can markets.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Aluminum Beverage Cans (World #1)
75%Aluminum Aerosols
15%Food and Other Cans
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2024
Ball Corporation sold its aerospace division to BAE Systems for $5.6 billion in February 2024, exiting the defense satellite and spacecraft manufacturing business it had operated for 60+ years. Before the sale, Ball was simultaneously the world's largest aluminum beverage can manufacturer AND a major US defense contractor building spacecraft for NASA, NOAA, and the Space Force. The same corporation that competed for aluminum can sheet to make Bud Light cans also built classified US intelligence satellites. Post-divestiture, Ball is a pure-play packaging company — but the institutional knowledge of that dual identity (commodity packaging + national security hardware) illustrates how the aluminum can supply chain intersects US defense industrial capacity at the corporate level.
Ball Corporation ↗Capacity2021
Ball Corporation announced and built a new multi-line aluminum can plant in Pittston, Pennsylvania specifically in response to the 2020-2021 can shortage, with production beginning mid-2021 and creating 230 jobs. It was a direct industry response to pet food demand pressure.
IndustryWeek ↗