Packaging machines and machinery industry 2008 - 2020

Production and sales of packaging machines above average relative to machinery industry

Do the packaging machines show up as growth sector compared to machinery industry? Or rather do they lag behind to the machinery industry? Not really anything but a bit of everything – the result is differentiated and revealing.

Update November 8th, 2021 - This report compares production and sales of packaging machines with that of machinery industry during twelve years from the pre-crisis year 2008 to the year 2020.

The differences will show up most clearly related to a common starting point. For this purpose we select the pre-crisis year 2008 setting the indices of production and sales turnover for that year at 100.

Production of packaging machinery with zero growth since 2011, machinery industry in negative territory

Compared to mechanical engineering, is the packaging machinery sector a growth sector when it comes to comparing quantities and production?

The answer is shown in the following diagram. The production of packaging machines and that of the entire mechanical engineering industry climbed out of the crisis together by 2011.

If we look at the entire period after the crisis overcomes 2011 to 2020, the production of packaging machinery in 2020 is back to the level of 2011 with an average annual growth rate of 0%. The production of mechanical engineering is below the level of the crisis overcoming in 2011 with an annual average production decline of 1.0%.

Looking back, let's divide the nine years since crisis was overcome in 2011 into two phases: a seven-year growth phase from 2011 to 2018 and a two-year decline phase from 2019 to 2020.

In the growth phase, packaging machinery production increases by +1.6% annually on average. The annual growth rate of the machinery industry in this phase is +1.0%.

Thus, in the growth phase after overcoming the crisis from 2011 to 2018, the production of packaging machinery develops slightly above average compared to mechanical engineering, but not in the manner of a dynamic growth industry. Only the course of packaging machinery production is more dynamic than that of machery industry - but in both directions up and down, as the diagram shows.

In the two-year phase of decline, the production of packaging machines falls by -5.5% per year and ends up at its 2011 level in 2020. The production of machinery industry collapses by -8.0% per year and is below its 2011 level in 2020.

Sales of packaging machinery grow nine times faster than those of machinery industry

Sales of packaging machinery are developing significantly above average compared with machinery industry, more precisely nine times faster.

In the period after the crisis has been overcome, from 2011 to 2020, sales of packaging machinery grow by +2.7% annually, while those of machinery industry grow by +0.3% annually. 

The decline in sales starts in 2018 for mechanical engineering, and one year later in 2019 for packaging machinery. Sales decline in machinery industry from 2018 to 2020 annually -6.9%, in packaging machines annually -2.5%.

So packaging machinery sector is typically developing above average compared to mechanical engineering with production slightly, sales clearly above average. However, periodic setbacks in production and sales prevent packaging machines from being declared a growth sector in mechanical engineering.

The reason for production and sales of packaging machines moving at different rates is unlocked by the shift of the export markets a separate report analyzes.

A further report compares the growth expectations regrading packaging machines to those in the machinery industry on the base of a market survey from Quest TechnoMarketing.