ABSTRACT
The food and beverage container industries provide an interesting laboratory for studying the shrinking global demand for metals and, in particular, for assessing the relative importance of the variables influencing that demand. The intense rivalry among materials used in making food and beverage containers—metals, glass, cardboard, plastic, and composite products—and among metals—aluminum, chromium, lead, tin, and steel—has given rise to major technological changes that have obviously influenced relative demand. Consumer life styles and market imperfections or distortions in the form of pressure groups, tariffs, and environmental costs must be added to the standard economic variables such as prices and income if one is to understand the evolution of the demand for metals in the food and beverage container market.
