Chinese Packaging Materials Factory to Be Built in Makó

Benepack Hungary Ltd. is building a packaging materials factory in the Makó industrial park in south-eastern Hungary. The foundation stone of the EUR 65 million (HUF 25.3 billion) investment was laid on Tuesday. Some of the investment costs are borne by Hungarian taxpayers , the amount of which was not disclosed but was described as a "generous grant" by the government.

The aim is to complete the infrastructure to support the plant within the next 12 months, with the factory operational by September 2024. A power, water and sewage network will be built to allow the plant to expand.

Chang Ye, Managing Director of Benepack Hungary Ltd. and CEO of parent company COFCO Packaging, said the company is setting up its Makó plant to produce aluminium cans as a second milestone in its European development. The aim of the investment is to enable the company to provide more cost-effective and environmentally friendly packaging solutions to its customers - beer and soft drink producers - in Hungary and the surrounding countries.

Global sales director Isabel Cheng said the company, a core business of the COFCO food processing group, produces packaging for a wide range of consumer goods - tin, aluminium and plastic packaging mainly for manufacturers of consumer goods: canned food, beverages, household chemicals.

In 2020, the Chinese company set up its first European plant in Genk, Belgium, with an investment of EUR 120 million, producing two billion aluminium cans per year.