Global Packaging Machinery Demand to Exceed $33 Billion in 2010

Global demand for packaging machinery is projected to expand 4.9 percent per year through 2010 to over $33 billion. Developing parts of the world will provide suppliers with some of the best sales opportunities going forward. Industrialization-related fixed investment activity, rising per capita incomes and growth in packaged goods production will all contribute to increases in equipment demand in these areas, most notably in Asia and Eastern Europe.

China will record the largest gains of any national market, surpassing Japan to become the second largest market in the world behind the U.S. Sales conditions are also expected to be strong in India, Russia, Mexico, and South Korea, as well as in lower-volume markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Turkey. Although the rate of growth will be less robust than in developing areas, packaging equipment demand in the U.S. and Japan will show renewed strength following a period of relatively sluggish gains, and market advances in Western Europe will also accelerate through 1020. These and other trends are presented in “World Packaging Machinery,” a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

Labeling and coding equipment is expected to register the strongest gains of any major product category through 2010, stimulated by rising consumption of label-intensive nondurable goods and by mandated use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags by suppliers to large buyers like the US Department of Defense and Wal-Mart. Demand for filling and form/fill/seal machinery, the most widely used type of packaging equipment, will also expand at an above-average pace. New generations of machinery with improved efficiency and flexibility a re boosting replacement demand, as well as the number of applications for this equipment.

Pharmaceutical and personal care products will represent the fastest growing market for packaging machinery through 2010. Sales will be driven by increased spending for pharmaceuticals in many developing nations, by the growing use of disposable medical devices, and by and aging of the population in developed countries. The food industry will remain by far the largest single market for packaging equipment, accounting for more than two-fifths of all product demand in 2010.

For additional information and to purchase the study, visit www.freedoniagroup.com