Well here we are halfway through 2008 and our challenges in Ontario continue on. On a positive note the rest of Canada which includes Western Canada, Quebec and the Maritimes show an increase in the metal cutting sector. Unfortunately fabricating numbers are down in both dollars and units across the country.

With our dollar remaining strong and our manufacturing sector shrinking in Ontario I believe we will continue to face very tough economic conditions. Hopefully over the next short while the realization of a higher quality produced North American vehicle will help the automakers stem their loss of market share to overseas vehicles. With the U.S. election looming it also should have a positive effect on the North American economy.

On a positive note I recently attended MMTS in Montreal and heard some very positive feedback. Everyone that I spoke to were very pleased with the traffic at the show and a number of them sold machines off the floor. This they said had not happened in a long time. All of the exhibitors I spoke with plan on returning in 2010.

Also we just had our annual spring cruise on June 11th and it was held onboard the Mariposa Belle. Unfortunately I was overseas at the time but I heard a fabulous evening was had by all the attendees again. This has been turning out to be a great evening for a number of years and hopefully we can keep increasing the attendance. My thanks to John Manley for filling in for me in my absence and to Metalworking Production and Purchasing magazine, Canadian Metalworking magazine, Canadian Industrial Machinery magazine and SME for being sponsors for the evening.

I will be finishing my three years as President of CMTDA in November and I feel honored to have been able to represent our association over this time. I look forward to continuing on with the board in the role of Past President. John Manley your Vice President will assume the role as President at this time and will no doubt bring the same enthusiasm to the President's position as he has to his role as a CMTDA director. Also I would like to thank Kurt Neiman who has assisted me over the past three years in his role as Past President. Kurt has been an active Board member over the years and has always given valuable input to it. His insight will be missed.

I will end by wishing everyone a safe and healthy summer and I look forward to seeing you at our Annual General Meeting on November 13th at the Country Club in Woodbridge.

Best Regards
Brian Donnelly

CMTDA monthly statistics show the number of units in Canada down slightly to 2007 but the dollar figure up by 18%.. Atlantic Region, Quebec and Western Canada all show gains, however the Ontario market is only in the 80% range of 2007.

Average order size in CNC metalcutting was: horizontal spindle lathes, $138,000; vertical spindle lathes, $154,000; multi tasking lathes, $324,000; vertical machining centers to 40 in. X, $ 111,000; vertical machining centers over 40 in. X, $ 205,000; vertical machining centers, five or more axis, $694,000; horizontal machining centers to four axis, $379,000; horizontal machining centers, five or more axis, $1,666,000; milling machines, $42,000; horizontal boring mills, $822,000; vertical boring mills, $616,000; EDM wire, $147,000; EDM sinker, $87,000; grinders, $173,000; CMMs, $158,000; and saws, $43,000.

The average order for a conventional cutting machine tool was $115,000. Orders for fabrication machinery are at a reduced level in both units and dollars. Units in Canada are lower by 21% and the numbers are lower by 11%. The average order size for CNC machines were: press brakes, $1113,000; shears, $449,000; turret punches, $4486,000; profile laser cutting, 595,000; profile plasma cutting, $667,000, profile water jet cutting, $230,000; and tube benders, $49,000.

CMTDA once again was proud to sponsor this bi-annual show in Montreal. It is not just the number of attendees that decide whether a show will be successful or not. This was recently proven at the recent Montreal Show held at Place Bonaventure from May 12 thru May 14.

The attendance was brisk and all of the comments heard from distributors were very positive. Comments such as “One of the best shows for leads that we have attended in a long time ” to “It has been a long time since we have sold machines off our booth, but this show, we have sold three ”.

A number of exhibitors that I spoke with also indicated they would not hesitate to return in two years. What is the reason? One of the factors I would like to believe is that the machine tool industry is continuing to press ahead with solid sales and encouraging inquiries from customers, especially in the Quebec market. Whatever the reasons are, it is a nice trend and one that I know we all hope continues.

This was the first Montreal Manufacturing Technology Show run by SME. They report a total of 6,055 attendees, not including media, students or exhibitors. Machine shops and tool and die lead the list with 1,357. Other significant groups came from aircraft and aerospace, industrial and commercial machinery and fabricated metals/stamping. 72% of attendees approve, evaluate or recommend purchases.

We are pleased to welcome a new member since our previous newsletter. Welcome to CLE Leasing Enterprise Ltd., Burlington, ON, Jack Marandola, President.

The CMTDA Annual Spring Meeting was held aboard the Mariposa Belle on June 11 and a record number of 104 attendees registered for the event.The weather was spectacular once again and along with good food, music and some stories shared by members and guests, a great time was had by all. Many thanks to our sponsors, Metalworking Production and Purchasing magazine, Canadian Metalworking magazine, Canadian Industrial Machinery magazine and SME Canada. While our President, Brian Donnelly was not able to attend, John Manley did an excellent job of welcoming all aboard.

We are all looking forward to our next event which is our Annual General Meeting on November 13th. It will be held at the Country Club in Woodbridge, Ontario at 4:00 P.M. We will be having two speakers, committee reports along with the usual President ’s Reception and dinner. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend.

The Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Machine Tool Distributors’ Association will be held at the Country Club, Lloyd Street, Woodbridge ON on Nov. 15, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.

We will have a full program in November as we have an election of Officers along with our committee reports. Our election takes place every two years and should you wish to nominate a member with their consent, please advise the CMTDA office.

We will also have two speakers presenting their thoughts regarding the machine tool industry. One speaker will come from Doosan Infracore and the other from MAG Industrial Automation Systems. We look forward to meeting you at that time.

Our two sister associations are working together to further benefit members and the overall promotion of machine tools and the quality of their information. In an effort to extend benefits to both sides of the border, the proposal is as follows:

1. CMTDA/AMTDA will share monthly data and press releases.
2. AMTDA will send their monthly newsletter to any CMTDA member who requests it for a fee of $224.00. If they were willing to accept email only delivery, they would be happy to provide this for free.
3. AMTDA will offer CMTDA members in good standing the AMTDA member rate to any training/trade event that AMTDA produces.This includes their Annual Meeting, Regional Meetings and Sales training programs.
4. CMTDA members in good standing will have access to the AMTDA Webinars at the AMTDA member price.
5. CMTDA members in good standing will have access to the AMTDA/CMTSE training at the AMTDA member cost.This includes the training manuals, on-line resources, exam and credentials. The shipping fee for the manuals would be paid by the participant.
6. CMTDA members will have access to the AMTDA on-line courses at the AMTDA member cost. AMTDA have roughly 25 on-line courses hosted by Tooling University.com.
7. AMTDA have a new publication that they are producing quarterly called ToolTRENDS. It includes USMTC data,economic indicators for the USA, an economic forecast from Steve Kline of Gardner Publications and from Alan Beulieu, their economist from their AGM. CMTDA members could receive the print version for $65.00 per year or free for the electronic version.

We look forward to working together with AMTDA as we have in the past and would appreciate your thoughts if you wish to send them to the CMTDA office.

The Canadian Machine Tool Distributors Association was founded in 1942 as a trade association dedicated to the marketing of machine tools and services in Canada through distributorship companies. 

• To promote friendly business relations among its members
• To provide means whereby problems affecting the industry can be readily discussed and to co-operate, as a group, to further the interests of the industry by all desirable and lawful means
• To stimulate growth in the use of machine tools and secure wider markets for these tools
• To advertise the industry and the specific advantages attainable through the use of machine tools
• To make available information which will assist users and prospective users to obtain properly selected machine tools
• To collect and disseminate statistics on market capacity and other pertinent matters
• To exchange information among members for the purpose of reducing distribution costs and eliminating waste and duplication of efforts
• To enable the members, as a group, to discuss with the government, if need be, tariff problems and other issues relating to machine tools.