Consumer and industrial goods companies plan on spending approximately $6.304 billion for packaging machinery in 2008, a 0.6 percent increase in spending over 2007 levels, according to a study released by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI).

The Packaging Machinery Purchasing Plans Study noted that only two of the eight tracked market segments will show growth: foods, up 2 percent to 4 percent; and personal care products, up 0 percent to 2 percent. The remaining six categories show moderate declines, but with slight potential for growth: beverages (-1 per cent to -3 per cent), pharmaceuticals (0 per cent to -2 per cent), personal care products (0 per cent to -2 per cent), chemicals (-1 per cent to +1 per cent), consumer, commercial and industrial durables/hard goods (-1 per cent to +1 per cent), paper products, textiles and other non-durables (-1 per cent to -3 per cent).

"PMMI members' customers reported they are holding steady with their packaging machinery spending plans for 2008, despite weakening economic conditions," said Charles D. Yuska, president & CEO of PMMI. "With 85 per cent of the respondents expecting to buy roughly the same amount or more than they did in 2007, we expect some market segments to be fine, with other groups feeling a tightening as consumer goods companies wait out the current economic quarter."

The PMMI 2008 Packaging Machinery Purchasing Plans Study is based on interviews with 511 decision-makers responding for 1,564 plants in the U.S.

The report is free to PMMI members and available to non-PMMI members for $1,500. For more information, contact Paula Feldman, director of research and surveys, PMMI, at 703-243-8555.

The PMMI is a trade association with more than 500 general, supplier and materials members manufacturing packaging and packaging-related converting machinery in Canada and the U.S. The organization is headquartered in Arlington, Va.