The value of domestic shipments of packaging machinery is projected to reach $8.5 billion in 2020, driven by fast growth in the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical sectors, a new study shows.

That forecast would represent a 2.4-percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the industry's 2015 value of $7.51 billion, according The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies (PMMI)'s 2016 State of the Industry U.S. Packaging Machinery Report.

Exports of packaging machinery in 2015 increased by 3.2 percent over the previous year and are now at $1.1 billion. and backlog orders of packaging machinery grew by 14.1 percent compared to backlog orders at the end of 2014, to reach $2.6 billion, PMMI announced at its PACK EXPO International trade conference in Chicago on Sunday.

Other data in the report show that the fastest-growing machinery types scored by CAGR through 2020 will be the labeling, decorating, and coding (3.9 percent) and the case handling (2.5 percent) machinery groups. That rapid growth is largely a result of new legislation demanding increased labeling and coding, continuing developments in printing technologies, and the proliferation of SKUs, PMMI said. The other machinery groups include: filling and dosing; bottling line; form, fill, and seal; cartoning; palletizing; closing; and wrapping and bundling.

Measured by vertical business area, the fastest-growing sectors will be pharmaceuticals (forecast to grow at 2.8 percent) and beverage (2.4 percent), the report found. They will be followed by growth in food (2.3 percent), household, industrial, and agricultural chemicals (1.8 percent), and personal care, toiletries, and cosmetic (1.6 percent).

"The forecast for the packaging machinery market is strong," Jorge Izquierdo, vice president for market development at PMMI, said in a release. "We continue to anticipate growth in major market segments such as pharmaceutical, as well as beverage. Factors such as changing consumer habits, new regulations, as well as general economic development are fueling this development."

PMMI produces the State of the Industry study based on U.S. Census Bureau reports and shipments data provided by association members that manufacture packaging machinery. The report, which analyzes 28 packaging-machinery categories, describes trends and the outlook for packaging machinery shipments through 2020.