Acute shortage of tinplate/ tin free steel is impacting the processed food packaging industry. The material is mainly used in the manufacture of food and fruit cans & containers. Tinplate consists of steel sheets coated with a thin layer of tin.
The shortage of the metal stems from scarce imports of the same on account of a government standard imposition. On 17 July’20, the Government of India had imposed a BIS standard on imports of tinplate/tin-free steel/products like easy-open ends, peel-off ends etc. Implementation of the same has now been extended up to 17 July’21.
Exporters of tinplate to India have applied to the BIS for getting the registration and approval of their plant but all such applications have been put on hold because of the Covid surge. This has resulted in nil imports of the material, resulting in shortage of tinplate containers. Most of the suppliers are from Japan and Korea who are keen to get the BIS certification but no one wants to visit India at present nor do BIS staff want to travel overseas to inspect the plants.
As per Sanjay Bhatia, President, Metal Can Manufacturers Association (MCMA), three leading international suppliers of tinplate/tin-free steel have applied for the BIS standard. However, it has been more than four months since any action has been taken on their BIS applications.
Demand mismatch
According to a representation by MCMA to the Ministry of Steel, the country has a huge demand supply mismatch since domestic production is limited to 4-4.5 lakh tonnes against a demand of 7 lakh tonnes. On average, 2.5 lakh tonnes of demand are met by imports from Japan, Korea, China and other countries which are bulk producers of tinplate/ tin-free steel/ products.
“There is a shortage of cans and easy-open ends which is affecting the packaging of mango pulp, particularly for exports,” said a Maharashtra based company engaged in the business of packaging mango pulp. This is the season of processing and packaging mango pulp. “The Maharashtra Alphonso pulp has a huge demand overseas. However, the shortage of tin-free steel is impacted its packaging and supply,” an official said.
Another company, which packages processed cheese, says the sudden surge in prices of steel and tin containers and their availability is also an issue. Most of the tin container manufacturers belong to the MSME space and are being unable to meet the domestic demand as there is a shortage of raw material.
Other end-users of tinplate/tin-free steel containers have also complained of lack of supply of the required quantity of containers, saying, whatever is available is priced steeply.
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