A shortage of aluminum cans, exacerbated by the pandemic situation, is affecting major brewers to the point where they have to cut back on their beer SKUs.
Molson Coors, Brooklyn Brewery and others are having to shorten or curtail runs of less popular products because they can’t be sure of their supplies of cans, especially the standard 12-oz variety, CNN reports. The biggest problem is that, as beer drinkers’ habits shifted to at-home consumption, demand for cans skyrocketed. This intensified a trend that had been going on for years: Since 2010, the share of beer consumed in cans in the U.S. has risen from 50% to 60%.
"This is a little bit of Covid, a little bit of market dynamics over the long run," Lester Jones, chief economist for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, told CNN.
Major can producers like Ball Corp. and Crown Holdings are adding to their can-making capacity with new lines and facilities, but those aren’t expected to come on-line for at least a year.
