There is no end in sight to the buying spree of Australian packaging giant Amcor (Abbotsford; www.amcor.com). On 16 June 2010 the company announced that it had bought the Ball Corporation’s (Broomfield, Colorado / USA; www.ballcorporate.com) Plastics Packaging Americas division, in a deal worth USD 280m. The acquisition still is pending approval from the regulatory authorities, but both companies believe the deal will be sealed during Q3 2010.

The business is to be integrated into Amcor’s Diversified Products division, following the recent integration of the former Alcan Pharma Plastics Packaging – see also Plasteurope.com of 05.02.2010. Amcor will take over Ball’s five US plants producing PET and PP bottles, located in Ames / Iowa, Batavia / Illinois, Bellevue / Ohio, Chino / California and Delran / New Jersey. Altogether, some 1,000 workers are currently employed at these sites.

Amcor believes the acquisition will afford it new growth opportunities in wine bottles, food packaging as well as the HDPE and PP container business, adding that the deal “brings with it expanded capabilities, including exciting developments in multi-layer, retort, and barrier technologies”.