The brick laying ceremony for the construction of an Alcan Packaging (Canada) carton plant took place on 14 December 2005 near St Petersburg, the Russian press reports.

The US$ 30 million investment agreement had been signed with the city government last August. The plant will employ 120 workers and is scheduled to start operation in 2006. According to the company, it will produce printed packaging for tobacco products. With this facility, along with one for confectionery and milk packaging to be built near Moscow, Alcan is going to enter the Russian market where only two international tobacco packaging manufacturers have been present until now. Amcor Rentsch of Australia runs a plant in Novgorod built from scratch, and Austrian Mayr-Melnhof purchased a folding carton facility in St Petersburg from Finnish and Russian owners last year. Owning a packaging plant in Kazakhstan, Alcan already has certain experience in operating on the CIS markets, of which Russian is the largest in terms of volume and value. The new facility for tobacco packaging will be located in immediate proximity to Alcan’s major customer, PM Izhora cigarette plant. (vt)