U.S. manufacturers of packaging machinery can compete successfully in both domestic and international markets by pursuing business strategies based on sustainability. That is the conclusion drawn from a new report issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, “Packaging Machinery: Sustainability and Competitiveness.” The report is part of a series created to inform public- and private-sector stakeholders about the specific sustainability-related challenges, present-day best practices, and unrealized opportunities that exist in specific U.S. manufacturing sectors.
“Packaging is essential infrastructure for our modern manufacturing economy—many business operations would be impossible without it,” says Peter Perez, ITA’s deputy assistant secretary for manufacturing. “Packaging machinery manufacturers provide crucial technology for a large and increasingly globalized packaging supply chain.”
The global market for packaging equipment is estimated to be nearly $25 billion. The sustainable strategies identified in the report are said to enable U.S. packaging machinery OEMs to target the largest cost per value component of the global packaging market: packaging materials, which are worth an estimated $475 billion annually.
