Shipments of packaging machinery to the US domestic market totaled an estimated $4.807 billion in 2002, according to a new report by Alexandria, VA-based Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute. That number is expected to increase to $4.896 billion this year, and to $5.141 billion in 2004.

Conversely, exports declined by 4.2 percent to $715 million last year, PMMI says. Exports of packaging machinery, as a percent of total US shipments, have fallen steadily over the past several years from 22.4 percent of the total in 1996, down to 14.9 percent in 2002. The negative trend is attributed to the combination of a strengthened US dollar (through mid-year 2002) and restrained foreign demand for machinery due to weakened global economic conditions.

Fortunately, the subsequent decline of the dollar in relation to foreign currencies, particularly the Euro and Yen during the second half of 2003, appears to have provided an immediate benefit to several US machinery manufacturers, which report a recovery in their volume of exports.

Among specific packaging-machinery categories, PMMI reports that US shipments of form-fill-seal systems for bags/pouches will rise 3.9 percent a year to 2005; shipments of labelers will climb 4.4 percent annual to 2005; and shipments of cartoning/multipacking units will increase 4.3 percent a year over the next 24 months.

While shipments of bagmakers and blister/clamshell thermoformers fell by 3.1 percent in 2002, PMMI predicts sales of these types of converting machines will rebound, with shipments rising 3.1 percent a year to 2005.