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Industrial and consumer packaging manufacturers made recent announcements about expansions in the United States.
These are some of the packaging facility investments announced during the last month:
- Ball Corp., in partnership with its customer, Red Bull, broke ground on a new $1.7 billion manufacturing and distribution center in Concord, North Carolina. Operations are expected to begin at the 2.36-million-square-foot facility in 2028, with a capacity ramp up expected through 2031. The partners announced the project in 2021 but didn’t advance until now due to unspecified delays.
- iPower, an e-commerce retailer and infrastructure company based in Rancho Cucamonga, California, installed a new packaging production line at its facility. This is part of the company’s previously announced joint venture, United Package NV, which it formed with Custom Cup Factory to establish U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities for commercial packaging. Production should begin by early autumn.
- Lamiflex Group, a Sweden-based transport packaging supplier, is making its first foray into the United States with a more than $5 million production facility in Borden, Indiana. The plant will manufacture plastic packaging, mainly for U.S. sheet steel producers. Once the plant reaches full capacity, it will employ 62 people.
- Nefab, an industrial packaging and logistics provider, opened its new $9.5 million Southeast hub in Braselton, Georgia. Moving from its previous site in Norcross to the new location triples the company’s local footprint to 150,000 square feet and allows for expanded production capacity. It will produce wood and plywood crates, corrugated packaging and foam cushioning — as well as offering kitting — for customers in the cloud computing, automotive and healthcare industries. This expansion will create 30 new jobs.
- Ring Container Technologies is investing $77 million to expand its plastic container manufacturing business into Whitestown, Indiana. The facility is expected to open next year and create 56 jobs, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Other updates:
- Circularix, a food-grade recycled PET producer, started up its new recycling facility in Ocala, Florida. The company also initiated plans to take over adjacent industrial space to expand its inaugural rPET plant, which opened in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, in 2023.
- Georgia-Pacific announced a plan to invest $800 million to modernize and expand its cellulose mill in Perdue Hill, Alabama. The project is slated to begin next quarter and reach completion in 2027. The upgrades are expected to increase production capacity by approximately 300 tons per day, and the mill will produce nearly 1 million tons of fluff and market pulps annually. G-P says the Alabama River Cellulose mill will be the largest and one of the most technologically advanced softwood pulp mills in the U.S. when the project is complete.
