The global packaging machinery market is estimated to have reached some US$22.4 billion in value in 2000 and accounts for approximately 5% of the total US$417 billion global packaging market. Ernst & Young estimates suggest that the packaging machinery market is the most fragmented of all the packaging sectors, with the world’s top ten suppliers accounting for only an approximate 25% share of the US$24.4 billion total.
Although packaging machinery is a largely stable market, demand levels in the United States have seen major swings between peaks and troughs in recent years. The high growth years of 1995, 1997, and 1999 saw increases in demand of 11%, 8.1%, and 7.5% respectively, whereas the lower growth years of 1996, 1998, and 2000 enjoyed increases of only 1.1%, 2%, and 2.2%. There have also been wide variations in the demand for different machine categories (see PMMI table, p.194). The 1999-2000 period saw the greatest increases for bottling lines, palletizing/unitizing, and general converting machinery; the largest falls in demand were sustained by skin/blister systems, coding/dating, and bag weighing/filling.
