Jim Kavanagh, director of AkzoNobel’s Industrial Coatings business, said the new facility will help the company respond to a strong need from the packaging industry and that “the investment is in line with our view that bisphenols are no longer required to create safe food contact coatings for the metal packaging industry.”

The Dutch paint and coatings group has just launched the first two products in its new Accelstyle range for the exterior of conventional two-piece aluminum beverage cans, both of which are free from bisphenols, styrene and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).

“The bisphenol-free products we’ve developed have a lower carbon footprint, compared with those we previously supplied. For example, the carbon footprint of the products for can interiors that we’ll manufacture in the new facility will be 26% lower than our earlier offerings, which were epoxy-based,” Kavanagh said.