The rigid plastics division of Australian manufacturer Amcor (Abbotsford; www.amcor.com) is to invest in a major expansion of extrusion blow moulded PP bottle capacity in the US and in Canada to meet market demand for packaging for food and nutritional supplements.

The multi-million dollar investment will be made at production facilities in Batavia, Illinois, Fort Worth, Texas, and Brampton, Ontario. The new capacity is primarily for production of multilayer PP containers, a product line acquired in August 2010 from Ball Plastics Packaging Americas (Broomfield, Colorado / USA; www.ballcorporate.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 18.06.2010 – along with HDPE containers with post-consumer recycled content for personal care and household applications.

“Since the acquisition, we’ve taken a business rich in know-how and innovative technology to a new level,” said Laurel Spencer, vice president of marketing for Amcor Rigid Plastics North America, diversified products. “Our strategy is to invest in new manufacturing to support growth in leading markets while meeting the needs of our customers in these key regions.”

Amcor said that its proprietary “Gamma” multilayer PP technology fulfils high barrier and high-temperature requirements for applications such as containers for salsa, barbecue sauce, ketchup, syrup, and liquid infant formula. As part of its growth strategy in the food segment, Amcor also recently added heat-set PET capacity (stretch blow moulding) at its Wytheville, Virginia / USA facility to serve regional food customers.