The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute is forecasting reduced machinery spending for the remainder of the year. This comes from a revised version of the institute’s 2008 Purchasing Plans Study, the first such midyear update of the annual report PMMI has ever done.
The changes noted in the revised report are relatively moderate but significant nonetheless. More than half of the respondents said they would stay on track with their packaging machinery purchase plans for 2008, but the remainder were split evenly between increasing budgets and scaling back.
"The packaging machinery market’s performance seems to be in line with today’s broader economic picture and the slowness all industries are facing right now," said Charles D. Yuska, president and CEO, PMMI. In light of economic changes this year, PMMI had asked respondents to reexamine their earlier responses.
The new research predicts an increase of 0.4 percent over 2007 in packaging machinery spending vs. a 0.6 percent prediction in the initial survey, bringing the year's anticipated spending to $6.292 billion, slightly less than the $6.304 billion predicted earlier in the year.
"Packagers are bringing in new machinery for two leading reasons: to accommodate new products and to increase capacity for existing products," said Yuska, noting a variety of reasons many packaging machinery buyers are maintaining or increasing their 2008 budgets.
However, weaker-than-expected demand and economic uncertainty have led to project cutbacks, delays, and cancellations that in many cases offset the positive factors he cited.
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