European Aluminium Foil Trends for Q1 2004 - News Item

The first quarter’s shipments of aluminium foil provided a promising start to the year. According to the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), with 208,000 tons the sales increased nearly 1% compared with first three months of 2003 – which were also high. These statistics mark a strong recovery from the slow down in sales during the fourth quarter of last year.

Sales were mainly driven by exports outside the EAFA regional coverage with a growth of 5.6 percent. The usage inside the EAFA region was stable.

Livio Frigerio, President of EAFA, commenting the economic outlook: “We expect this good start to continue at least until autumn. The level of demand for aluminium foil especially from outside the EAFA region shows the global leadership of the European foil industry in terms of quality and competitiveness.”

Approximately three quarters of aluminium foil is used in packaging where its characteristics of strength, formability and barrier properties have made it an essential part of many flexible packaging and container applications. The number of new products that feature innovative uses of aluminium foil based packaging indicates a healthy future for the material. Other uses of aluminium foil include automotive and other heat exchange components, insulation material and other industrial applications.

Posted June 2004