News Room 2023

  • twitter
  • facebook
Listen to this page

UACJ Concludes Business Alliance Agreement with Toyo Seikan Group Holdings to Promote Closed-loop Recycling of Aluminum Cans
—Aiming to Jointly Develop and Market Eco-friendly Products and to Establish a Recycling Chain—

February 7, 2023

UACJ Corporation (head office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; president: Miyuki Ishihara; hereafter, “UACJ”) announced today that it concluded a business alliance agreement with Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd. (head office: Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo; president: Ichio Otsuka; hereafter, “Toyo Seikan”) on February 6, 2023, for the purpose of jointly studying ways to facilitate the closed-loop recycling of aluminum cans.

Based on this business alliance agreement, the two companies will aim to develop and market aluminum cans that offer more benefits to the environment by applying their respective technologies and know-how. Furthermore, they will look to collaborate in used aluminum can collection and recycling initiatives across the entire value chain with a view to promote further progress in can-to-can closed-loop recycling.

Between April 2021 and March 2022, 96.6% of aluminum cans were recycled in Japan, but the proportion was just 67.0% on a can-to-can basis*1 (meaning aluminum cans are recycled as the same product). Nevertheless, by raising this proportion, thereby enhancing the environmental benefits of aluminum cans, the two companies believe that the share of aluminum cans in the domestic beverage container market could increase, especially since aluminum cans accounted for only 28% of all beverage containers in Japan in 2021*2.

UACJ is striving to provide solutions to environmental issues by supplying value-added materials under its long-term roadmap, UACJ Vision 2030, and has specified the aluminum can market as a growth market in its current mid-term management plan, which extends to March 2024. Furthermore, UACJ has designated its response to climate change as one of its materiality issues, and set the goal of being carbon neutral in 2050 with respect to Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions. Toward that end, UACJ has set a 2030 target of reducing Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions by 30% compared with the fiscal 2019 level.

By partnering with Toyo Seikan, the largest packaging manufacturer in Japan, UACJ believes that it will be able to develop products at a faster pace than before and promptly provide eco-friendly aluminum cans to a broader range of consumers. Furthermore, through this business alliance, the two companies will aim to reduce CO2 emissions across the entire beverage container supply chain while spurring progress in the closed-loop recycling of aluminum cans.

With the goal of promoting decarbonization and recycling throughout society, the UACJ Group will continue working to improve the functionality of aluminum materials, build its business model from the standpoint of recycling, and expand its network of business partners going forward.

  • *1 Figures are from the Japan Aluminum Can Recycling Association.
  • *2 The figure is the proportion of aluminum cans among all other categories of beverage containers (PET bottles, steel cans, paper cartons, paper cups, and glass bottles) on a shipment volume basis in 2021, according to research by the Yano Research Institute Ltd. published on January 18, 2023 (“Beverage Container Market in Japan: Key Research Findings 2022”).

About Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd.

Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd., is a world-class comprehensive packaging manufacturer, delivering a variety of packaging containers using materials such as metal, plastic, paper, and glass. In its Long-Term Management Vision 2050, “The Future, Wrapped for All,” the company set the goal to go beyond its traditional field of packaging, aiming to become a corporate group that creates new value that changes society. Founded in 1917, Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd. does business on a global scale, with 46 group companies in Japan and 50 overseas and currently employs a multinational workforce of 19,000 people. Its consolidated net sales totaled ¥821.5 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.

About UACJ Corporation

Established in Japan in 2013 through the merger of Sumitomo Light Metal Industries and Furukawa-Sky Aluminum, UACJ Corporation operates globally as an integrated aluminum product manufacturer. Based on its stated purpose of “contributing to society by using raw materials to manufacture products that enhance prosperity and sustainability,” the UACJ Group operates six businesses—flat rolled products, automotive parts, extruded products, foil, casting and forging, and precision-machined components—that supply aluminum materials to a wide range of industries, including the beverage can, automotive, IT device, air-conditioning, and aerospace industries. The flat rolled products business supplies products globally from production facilities in the United States, Thailand, and Japan, and the automotive parts business leverages a production system integrating processes from aluminum alloy development to design in the United States, China, and Japan.
The Company posted consolidated net sales of ¥782.9 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, and the Group employs around 9,600 people around the world.