US shipments of food and general line metal cans fell 3.2% in the second quarter of 2026, with pet food the only large category still in growth, according to figures published by the Can Manufacturers Institute.

Shipments reached 6.29 billion cans in the three months to June, down from 6.50 billion in the same period of 2025. That takes year-to-date volumes to 12.39 billion cans, 2.9% below the 12.76 billion shipped over the first half of last year, a shortfall of around 372 million units.

The data, released on 28 July, is compiled from 11 participating manufacturers including Crown Cork & Seal, Silgan Containers, Sonoco, Trivium Packaging, Mauser Packaging Solutions and Envases. CMI estimates the group accounts for roughly 90% of the total US food and general line market.

Pet food takes 43% of the food can market

Pet food was the only large category to grow, with 2.39 billion cans shipped in the quarter, up 5.8% year on year. Over the half it is up 6.6% to 4.84 billion cans, a gain of almost 300 million units. That is close to the 287 million-unit decline in vegetables over the same period.

Pet food now accounts for 43.5% of all US food cans shipped, against 40.0% in the second quarter of 2025, and for more than a third of the entire food and general line total.

Coffee and fruit also grew strongly, though from far smaller bases. Coffee shipments rose 40.6% to 27 million cans, the highest quarterly figure in CMI’s published series, and are up 23.1% year to date. Fruit cans, excluding juices, climbed 27.4% to 153.6 million in the quarter and 21.4% over the half.

Soups post the weakest quarter in the series

The traditional shelf-stable categories continued to contract. Vegetable cans, excluding juices, fell 9.4% to 1.44 billion in the quarter and are down 9.7% year to date.

Soups and miscellaneous foods saw the sharpest fall of any food category, down 11.4% to 793.3 million cans. That is the lowest quarterly volume in the historical data CMI publishes, and well below the 972.7 million shipped in the first quarter of this year.

The All Other Foods category, which covers baby food, dairy, juices, meat and poultry and seafood, declined 10.2% to 684.7 million cans. Food cans overall slipped 2.8% in the quarter to 5.49 billion.

Three-piece food cans fall sharply

Split by process, two-piece food cans were broadly steady, down 1.9% to 4.50 billion. Three-piece volumes fell much harder in the quarter, dropping 6.6% to 996.5 million.

The gap is confined to the second quarter. Three-piece shipments were marginally ahead in the first quarter, leaving the two formats close on a year-to-date basis at declines of 1.7% and 1.9% respectively.

Aerosols down but recovering on the quarter

General packaging fell 6.3% year on year to 793.9 million cans. Aerosols, covering both steel and aluminium, were down 8.6% to 651 million. Year to date, aerosol shipments are 11.3% lower at 1.24 billion, the weakest performance of any segment in the report.

Volumes did improve on the first quarter. General packaging was up almost 15% on the 691.5 million shipped in the first three months, and aerosols recovered from a first-quarter low of 584 million.

Other nonfoods, which covers paint, varnish and automotive products, was the only general packaging line in year-on-year growth, rising 5.5% to 142.9 million cans. That is its strongest quarter in the published series, though the category remains 6.7% down over the half.