Packaging machinery demand to grow

World packaging machinery demand is set to grow by 4.9% annually over the next three years according to Ucima Research Department, which publishes exclusive three year forecasts (2015-2018) for global demand divided up by geographical area, type of machine and sectors served.

At a meeting of member companies held at the association’s headquarters in Modena, the Ucima Research Department unveiled an exclusive new forecast study for global packaging machinery, which enables companies to make three-year forecasts for packaging machinery demand based on their specific production and sales characteristics.

According to the study, the world market will mark up annual growth of 4.9 per cent over the next three years to reach an estimated value of €40.3bn in 2018.
This growth will be driven by demand from Asia, Africa and Oceania (+7.1 per cent), followed by that of Latin America (+5.6 per cent).
As for market sectors, the highest global growth in packaging machinery will be for the cosmetics industry (+6.6 per cent), followed by the chemicals industry (+5.4 per cent) and food (+5.2 per cent).

In absolute terms, food will remain the main client sector, accounting for 31.8 per cent of total demand (€12.8bn).

The breakdown of demand by type of machinery only partially reflects the breakdown by client sectors. Wrapping machines are expected to see the biggest percentage growth over the three-year period (+5.6 per cent), followed by filling machines (+5.2 per cent) and labelling machines (+5.0 per cent).

The EU will see three per cent growth to a total market value of €10.7bn, driven by 4.8 per cent growth in cosmetics industry machinery, 4.1 per cent in food machinery and 3.5 per cent growth in machinery for the chemicals industry.
Italian machinery exports are expected to outperform the world average with higher than average growth in the EU (+3.2 per cent), North America (+4.6 per cent), Africa and Oceania (+7.7 per cent).

In particular, Italian exports will mark up the biggest growth percentages in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Turkey and Iran.

In the current year Italian packaging machinery manufacturers are reporting a performance in line with last year’s results, when the sector achieved yet another record turnover of €6.3bn.

In the current year, a small slowdown in exports (83 per cent of total turnover) has been offset by sales growth in the Italian market.