At the start of 2025, AkzoNobel described the year as a pivotal moment for the metal packaging industry. It was expected to be a period when long-anticipated regulatory decisions, sustainability commitments, and customer expectations would converge and accelerate change across the value chain.

That prediction proved largely accurate. Throughout 2025, transition planning intensified as many customers prioritised compliance. As the market stabilises, conversations are increasingly turning to long-term coating strategies.

While the move away from BPA continues to dominate current transition plans, discussions are expanding to include broader regulatory resilience, including non-intentionally added substances (NIAS), other materials of concern and circularity requirements. With the internal transition nearing completion ahead of the mid-2026 ban, the external transition is accelerating as the industry prepares to meet the January 2028 deadline.

Much of this transition is evident in the food and beverage packaging market, where regulatory deadlines and global brand specifications are driving change in internal coatings technology, with brands increasingly seeking long term solutions to optimise their time and stay ahead of regulations.

AkzoNobel Packaging Coatings spent 2025 helping customers prepare for this moment by supporting major BPAni transitions, strengthening nextgeneration technology platforms and sharing insight across the value chain. As the industry continues working through the transition to compliant solutions, the company remains committed to guiding the industry through both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

BPA transition: from acceleration to completion

The move away from BPA-based epoxy coatings has gathered significant pace over the past 12 months. Regulatory clarity in Europe has accelerated the shift from evaluating alternatives to implementing compliant solutions.

In the EU, 2026 will be defined by the 20 July deadline for single-use food contact materials and packaging containing BPA under Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190, which applies to manufacturers, importers and distributors.

This timeline provides clarity, but also creates urgency, as the industry works through the necessary trials, brand approvals and qualification processes.

While other regions are moving at different speeds, many can makers, particularly those serving multinational brands and supplying global customers, are aligning with the most stringent markets.

Across global markets, we see two clear dynamics emerging. Firstly, regions with firm regulatory timelines are advancing fastest, with our customers accelerating the transition of their internal coatings to stay ahead of compliance milestones. Secondly, markets influenced by global brand specifications are transitioning proactively, even without immediate regulatory pressure.

Significant progress has been made, but the transition remains complex. Many can makers have introduced compliant coating solutions to meet regulatory deadlines, yet portfolio decisions continue to evolve as brand approvals are finalised, performance data is gathered and supply strategies are reassessed.

The next wave of technology: designing resilient and future-proof solutions

Customer conversations with coaters, can makers and brands, are also expanding beyond BPA to include other substances of concern, such as PFAS, PVC and alternative bisphenol based resins. A noticeable change in mindset is emerging, with customers also requesting greater NIAS and chemical transparency.

This signals a fundamental shift: coatings decisions are no longer about replacing BPA based epoxies but about selecting solutions that deliver long-term regulatory resilience and avoiding repeated testing and transitions in the future.

The next generation of coatings must deliver high performance while proactively addressing emerging regulatory restrictions, sustainability pressures and operational efficiency.

Extensive testing and qualification will remain central as can makers adapt to a new coatings landscape. Before BPA regulations, one single epoxy solution could be used across all beverage segments, but it is now clear that the emerging and expanding hard to hold categories require different performance levels. The likely scenario is that can makers will need to adopt a two-solution approach, using one solution for standard beverages and another for more demanding applications in order to balance cost effective compliance with higher performance products.

AkzoNobel’s Accelshield coatings range reflects this shift. The Accelshield 150 coating provides a cost-effective and compliant BPAni solution for mainstream beverage applications, while the Accelshield 300 coating is bisphenol-free and designed to deliver protection even for the more challenging beverage categories. Together these coatings allow can makers to transition to a regulatory compliant, multi-coating portfolio while balancing performance and cost.

Several technology trends are likely to define the next 12 to 24 months:

• Coating technology designed to avoid multiple classes of restricted substances, offering broader and more sustainable long-term solutions;
• Solutions that can be implemented across existing production lines with minimal disruption;
• Portfolio-compatible technologies that allow can makers to manage different beverage categories while maintaining operational efficiency and cost control; and
• Line-efficiency enhancements, including lower bake temperatures, improved curing profiles and reduced spoilage.

Coaters, can makers and brands are planning further ahead — and asking the right questions

Driven by regulatory deadlines, sustainability requirements and the need to simplify global specifications, can makers and brands are asking broader strategic questions. Common themes include:

• How to achieve global harmonisation despite regional regulatory divergence;
• How to simplify coatings portfolios to reduce risk and avoid repeated qualification cycles;
• How coatings influence sustainability performance, including energy use, carbon footprint and recyclability;
• What support is required to manage transitions across multiple lines at scale; and
• How to manage the cost and operational complexity of using multiple coating technologies across different beverage categories.

Coatings are increasingly recognised not only as a protective layer but as a strategic part of packaging design which have implications for safety, compliance, operational economics and brand reputation.

Sustainability and circularity will shape the next decade

Sustainability is becoming a measurable, and mandatory part of packaging decisions as regulatory frameworks, brand commitments, and reporting expectations converge.

Coatings influence sustainability performance in several critical ways: waste reduction, directly impacting lifecycle emissions; circularity and high-quality material recovery, increasingly significant under evolving EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and Extended Producer Responsibility requirements; and transparency and data availability, as customers request carbon footprints and broader sustainability reporting.

In 2026, coatings that combine regulatory readiness with measurable environmental performance will play an increasingly important role in future packaging strategies.

Navigating global regulatory divergence

AkzoNobel Packaging Coatings supports customers in designing specifications that remain robust across markets, anticipating upcoming changes and reducing the risk of repeated reformulation. As regulations tighten in some regions and evolve at different rates elsewhere, global brands and can makers face growing complexity. The challenge is not simply compliance, it is managing different regional requirements while maintaining efficient, consistent, future-proof coating portfolios.

Looking forward: a more strategic future for metal packaging

Last year laid the foundation for the industry’s final push towards compliance to meet the first regulatory deadline under Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190. Beyond this immediate transition phase, can makers will be focused on ensuring that they have the right combination of coating technologies in place for the future. Future success for can makers will depend on the ability to: balance compliance with long-term portfolio strategy; optimise cost and performance across multiple beverage categories; harmonise global specifications; improve efficiency and reduce carbon through smarter coating choices; and collaborate across the value chain to accelerate adoption of next-generation technologies.

Suppliers that can support both immediate regulatory compliance and long-term portfolio flexibility will play an increasingly important role as the industry evolves. At AkzoNobel, we remain committed to guiding that journey – through innovation, insight and partnership.

Can makers and brands that partner with suppliers who can guide them through change and navigate future challenges will flourish. Together, we can shape change and build a safer, more sustainable future for the industry.