PMMI's 2026 State of the Industry Puts U.S. Packaging Machinery at $11.7 Billion

The Market in Numbers

U.S. packaging machinery shipments reached an estimated $11.7 billion in shipment value in 2025, according to PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Food manufacturing led all end markets at 44% of total U.S. machinery shipments, translating to roughly $5.1 billion. That food segment is projected to climb to $7.1 billion by 2031.

Imports of packaging machinery into the United States totaled $3.8 billion in 2025, a measure of how much foreign-built equipment the market still absorbs alongside domestic shipments.

The North American Trade Picture

The Canada-U.S. corridor runs tight. Canadian domestic packaging machinery shipments reached approximately $1.2 billion in 2025, up 3.6% from 2024, and PMMI projects that figure to approach $1.3 billion in 2026 and $1.4 billion in 2027.

Trade flows between the two countries are closely coupled. The U.S. accounts for 30% of Canada's packaging machinery imports, while 91% of Canadian packaging machinery exports head south. Food represents 43.6% of Canadian machinery value, a split that mirrors the U.S. breakdown closely.

What's Driving Spend

Jorge Izquierdo, PMMI's vice president of market development, framed the central pressure directly: "Packaging and processing companies are being asked to do more SKUs, more formats and more automation; all while maintaining productivity and making every capital investment count."

That's showing up in buying behavior. Manufacturers are moving away from dedicated, single-format equipment toward modular systems built for faster changeovers. Changing consumer preferences, including demand for single-serve and grab-and-go formats, are accelerating SKU counts, and sustainability mandates and regulatory requirements are adding material and format constraints that equipment must handle simultaneously.

Labor's shifted from a cyclical concern to a structural one. Workforce constraints are now a permanent input into capital planning, and the report lists them alongside rising input costs and tightening capital discipline as forces compressing the margin for error on equipment investments.

AI's Early Foothold

AI is entering the category through practical, unglamorous channels. The report identifies knowledge capture as the leading early use case: manufacturers are using AI tools to preserve institutional knowledge from retiring workers before it walks out the door. Specification development and real-time troubleshooting follow as the next two practical applications gaining adoption.

Robotic and cobot palletizing systems are gaining specific traction in facilities managing frequent SKU changes, where labor availability is tightest and changeover demands are highest. The convergence of case erecting, case packing, and case sealing into integrated systems reflects the same logic: fewer handoffs, fewer operators, faster format changes.

PACK EXPO in View

PACK EXPO International 2026 runs October 18-21 in Chicago, with more than 2,600 exhibitors filling 1.3 million square feet of exhibit space and an expected 48,000 attendees from more than 40 vertical markets. The show is the sector's largest North American venue for the flexible automation and AI tooling the report maps out, and it arrives less than 5 weeks after the report's release.

Sources

• PMMI's 2026 State of the Industry Report Reveals a Packaging Machinery Market Driven by Flexibility, Automation, and New North American Opportunities, PMMI
• PMMI's 2026 State of the Industry Report, Manufacturing Tomorrow
• US Packaging Machinery Market Reaches $11.7B in 2025, The Provisioner
• PMMI's 2026 State of the Industry Report, Packaging Technology Today

Companies mentioned

• PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies
• PACK EXPO International 2026