Corus Packaging Plus increases 2006 contract prices by 10%

Wim Hamers, Director Commercial of Corus Packaging Plus, said:
"The demand for high quality packaging steels remains strong. Worldwide we expect continuing tightness in availability of quality raw materials for the foreseeable future. As a consequence input costs for our steel industry will remain at structurally higher levels than in the past. In 2005 we incurred higher raw material cost increases than anticipated and therefore it is necessary to recover these costs in our 2006 prices for packaging steels.

The environment for competing packaging materials is changing as well, due to increased costs for energy and commodities, and this is creating a new context for all packaging businesses.

Corus is committed to the packaging sector and strives for continuity, reliability and creating outstanding value in partnership with our customers. We see it as a joint responsibility - together with canmakers and their customers - to ensure continuity for the packaging steel supply chain in the future. Within that responsibility we will develop a balanced approach to ensure that steel packaging retains a valued position in comparison with competing packaging materials and formats from the perspective of food safety and protection, shelf life, economic value and - of course - infinite recyclability."

Corus Packaging Plus is a business unit of Corus. It supplies light gauge steel to more than 50 countries worldwide from plants in The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Norway and Belgium. The commercial headquarters are at IJmuiden in The Netherlands.

For further information:
Wim Hamers, Director Commercial
Corus Packaging Plus
Tel (+) 31 251 493300
Fax (+) 31 251 471227
wim.hamers@corusgroup.com