Metal packaging industry in North Africa navigates choppy waters

The metal packaging industry in North Africa navigates choppy waters. By Vladislav Vorotnikov.

The growing population and expanding retail industry are driving metal packaging consumption up across the Maghrib region. The demand is largely met by unlicensed underground businesses that do not comply with safety standards and pose serious safety risks, but things are slowly changing for the better.

The metal packaging market in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco has demonstrated modest but steady growth over the past five years, Ismail Sutaria, principal consultant, packaging at Future Market Insights, told CanTech International.

“Growth is mainly driven by increasing demand for packaged food and beverages, personal care, and industrial use, such as cans for paints and oils. As the biggest of the three economies, Egypt has experienced the most volume growth with the help of a large population and growing FMCG and food processing industries,” Sutaria said.

The metal packaging markets in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco are steadily expanding, driven largely by the development of modern retail infrastructure and changing consumer preferences, Praneetha Faustina, associate research analyst at Euromonitor International, told CanTech.

“As access to supermarkets, convenience stores, and e-commerce platforms grows across the region, so does the demand for secure, attractive, and sustainable packaging, particularly metal,” Faustina said.

In value, the metal packaging production in Egypt, the largest market in North Africa, has nearly doubled over the last five years, Euromonitor reported. In 2024, the production output in the metal packaging and other fabricated metal products was EGP 42 billion (US$830 million), against EGP 33.1 billion ($654 million) in the previous year and only EGP 18.8 billion ($371 million) in 2022.

Population growth and improving living standards are the key factors fuelling the growth of the country’s metal packaging industry. Since 2019, Egypt’s population jumped from 107 to 119 million, and under the existing forecasts, the figure could reach 130 million by 2030. In addition, the Egyptian economy is growing at 4.2 per cent per year, twice above the two per cent average for the Middle East and North Africa region.

The production follows a steady upward trajectory in Tunisia. In 2024, it reached TND 751 million ($250 million), climbing from TND 701 million ($235 million) a year earlier. The figure jumped by nearly a third compared with 2019, when it amounted to only 563 million ($188 million).

“Tunisia’s market has expanded more slowly due to relatively restrained consumer expenditure but is stable,” Sutaria noted, citing the turbulent economic environment in the country, where the GDP growth was limited to only 1.7 per cent in 2024 and equal to zero a year earlier.

In Morocco, the industry is still struggling to recover from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic difficulties, partly associated with the pandemic.

In 2024, the metal packaging production in the country stood at MAD 10.2 billion ($1.1 billion), slightly up from MAD 9.8 billion ($1.06 billion) in the previous year. The production performance is yet to reach the 2019 level of MAD 10.4 billion
($1.12 billion).

Morocco is believed to be the largest market for metal packaging due to higher living standards. The median monthly salary in the country is 16,790 MAD or around US$1,743, while in Egypt it is close to 12,000 EGP, or $238.

Population growth is not the only factor contributing to the growth in metal packaging. In recent years, the industry has clearly benefited from the development of retail infrastructure and the growing penetration of pre-packed food, according to Ahmed Helmy, head of Think Tank, a Cairo-based consultancy. As hypermarkets and supermarkets gain market share, people have more access to packaged products. This trend is only gaining traction as small and local artisan storesstill dominate in most parts of the Maghrib region, Helmy added.

Insufficient supply

The aluminium packaging market in North Africa is dominated by Ball Corporation, which meets roughly 90 per cent of demand in Egypt’s market and supplies Tunisia and Morocco from its plant near Giza.

In the late 2010s, the plant underwent a capacity expansion worth around $60 million, in addition to the EGP 840 million ($16.6 million) investments Ball Corporation pumped into its local business by that time, as revealed by local government officials. During the upgrade, Ball Corporation commissioned the third production line.

Ball is benefiting from steadily growing sales. According to Euromonitor International, retail sales of beverage packaging in Egypt reached 9.5 billion units in 2024, against 9.36 billion units in the previous year and 7.9 billion units in 2019. In Morocco, retail sales of beverage packaging rose to 920 million in 2024, compared with 882 million and 897 million in 2019. In Tunisia, the consumption statistics are not available.

In the steel packaging segment, the picture is slightly different, the analysts admitted. “Despite the recent growth, the region still lags behind global and even wider MENA averages when it comes to investment, technology penetration, and
capacity to produce,” Pandita said.

Image: Xiamen Oasis Foods

In recent years, the demand in the segment has been largely met by imports from the European Union and Turkey.

A turbulent political and economic environment in the region deprives foreign investments of the segment.

“Additionally, foreign direct investment in metal packaging has been low, partly as a result of regional economic and political uncertainties, which dampens the size and level of consolidation of the local industry against international benchmarks,” Sutaria added.

In recent years, North Africa has been one of the key regions for Turkey’s metal packaging exporters, Aslihan Arikan, general consultant of ASD Turkish Packaging Manufacturers Association, told CanTech. In 2024, Turkey exported metal packaging worth $209 million, and a large part of these quantities landed in North Africa.

Underground business

Despite the output growth in recent years, local manufacturers account for a relatively small share of supply and prefer to keep a low profile. No manufacturers publicly pledged to invest in capacity expansion or modernisation during the last few years.

“The absence of new investment announcements indicates that the market is underdeveloped as well as capital-starved,” Pandita said. “Most companies run on outdated equipment and are cost-competitive, format-oriented instead of innovation or capacity development.”

The metal packaging industry in North Africa experiences challenges from the ongoing presence of unlicensed packaging producers that often flood the market with low-quality, non-compliant products, posing safety risks and eroding consumer trust, Faustina warned.

In recent years, the authorities and businesses in Egypt have intensified their struggle against underground packaging manufacturers. “Toaddress these issues and boost competitiveness, Egyptian small and medium enterprises are
turning to digital printing technologies to produce high-quality, customised packaging efficiently. Smart packaging is also on the rise, especially in the food and pharmaceutical sectors, incorporating IoT integration, QR codes, and sensors to enhance safety, monitor freshness, and improve consumer interaction,” Faustina said.

Much like in Egypt, Morocco continues to struggle with unlicensed producers whose products undermine regulatory standards and pose safety risks, Faustina said, adding that the struggle against such operations has gained steam in the country in recent years.

Upward trend

Metal packaging production and consumption are projected to keep rising across North Africa. “The medium-to-long-term perspective is favourable, but contingent upon overall industrial policy and infrastructure investment,” Sutaria said, adding that population growth will fuel rising demand for packaged products, especially shelf-stable foods, soft drinks, and pharmaceuticals.

In addition, the green agenda, which is slowly making its way to the region, is also expected to spur the demand for metal packaging.

“The worldwide green agenda – based on curbing plastic waste and enhancing recyclability – is beginning to make itself felt in the North African market, although it isn’t yet an overarching trend. Multinationals active in the region – such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, and L’Oréal – are launching more environmentally friendly formats as part of their global ESG strategy, such as aluminium and steel packaging,” Sutaria said.

Morocco has been leading on environmental policy and industrial sustainability, but Tunisia and Egypt are pursuing at a slower pace, Sutaria said, adding that cost and availability continue to trump environmentally motivated decision-making most regional manufacturers and buyers, so plastics continue to dominate low- to mid-range product segments.

Rapid development of the retail industry and e-commerce promises to make life harder for underground businesses. “Across Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, the rise of modern retail and e-commerce is fundamentally reshaping packaging demands,” said Faustina.

“As traditional trade gives way to supermarkets and digital shopping platforms, there is growing pressure on manufacturers to provide tamper-proof, visually appealing, and high-performance packaging. This evolution, coupled with stricter environmental regulations, is pushing companies across the region to shift toward more sustainable metal-based options,” Faustina added.

In general, the consumption trends represent a robust demand-side tailwind for metal packaging. “Urbanisation and retail formalisation will boost the demand for branded, durable, and aesthetically pleasing packaging forms, much of which suits metal well. That said, the supply side must improve,” Sutaria agreed.

However, without more investment in local capacity, recycling infrastructure, and material availability, the region risks being overly reliant on imports and vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions, Sutaria warned. Finally, policy developments, such as potential bans on certain plastics and the introduction of EPR schemes, could accelerate metal packaging adoption, but only if implemented alongside industry incentives  and recycling reforms, Sutaria concluded.