Welcome to the summer issue of our newsletter. It would have been nice for me to be able to report better sales statistics and a good economic recovery but the reality of the situation is quite different. It is however a pleasure to confirm that our association remains strong in these difficult times. Our membership continues with 63 regular and 10 associate members participating in the benefits of CMTDA. Our annual Spring Meeting and Harbour Cruise was held on June 5th and was attended by 86 members and guests. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, however according to Jim Burrows, the cruise was fun and the food was excellent. In keeping with the tradition, our media friends, CM&M, MP&P and CIP provided support with the wine and spirits and we thank them for their commitment.

Kurt Neiman, our Vice President, presented Manfred Jahn and his wife Trudy with an Honourary Membership to CMTDA. Manfred retired recently from his machine tool distributorship after a long and successful career. He is also a past president and a very loyal supporter of CMTDA. Manfred and Trudy, good luck and good health in your retirement. Kurt also welcomed Eric St. James and Keith Hann of Paramount Machinery as new members, Bob and Sandy Burnside, Jim Smith and Jim and Marilyn Burrows as honourary members. Once again, CMTDA is supporting a Toronto exam site for the CMTSE program operated by AMTDA on July 26th. The site will once again be held at Ryerson in the downtown area. Good luck to all participants.

The Canadian Machine Tool Show in Toronto is just around the corner at the National Trade Centre on October 20 thru 23, 2003. The show will group machine tools, metal forming, measurement technology, tooling and factory automation together in one package. Our responsibility will be to promote the show with our suppliers and customers alike to make this show a success in these trying economic times.

Once again, we are planning our annual CMTDA golf tournament. The date will be August 21st and we will be playing at Pheasant Run in Newmarket. Thanks to Kurt Neiman for his effort in organizing this enjoyable event. Our Annual General Meeting will be held this year on November 20th at the Toronto Curling, Skating and Cricket Club. Our speaker will be David Prentice. He will be conducting a seminar during the day for sales people as well. We will advise the details for you shortly. As this is my last newsletter column as pres-ident of your association, I want to tell you that the experience has been wonderful. I have learned a lot working with a fine group of directors over the past 6 years. Thank you to all of them and a special thanks to Jim Burrows for his support and commitment.

Best Regards

Albert Leblanc, President

by CMTDA Executive Director Jim Burrows

Sales for machine tools are continuing at a similar pace to last year. The first five months of 2003 have shown an increase in dollars and a decrease in units.

While the units are down approximately 11%, the dollar increase is approximately 12%.

Average order size is $307,000 for lathes, $173,000 for ver-tical machining centers, $504,000 for horizontal machining centers, $538,000 for horizontal boring mills, $195,000 for wire EDMs, $114,000 for EDM sinker, $145,000 for grinders and $171,000 for coordinate measuring machines.

Conventional machine tools average $20,000, CNC fabricat-ing equipment was $198,000, non-CNC fabricating equipment was $16,000, and metal stamping equipment was $43,000. The overall average machine tool sale was $98,400.

Some of these numbers are up significantly, especially in the CNC lathe and horizontal machining categories. Both show substantial increases in units and average dollars.

It seems the market demands increased sophistication and automation in these areas, however the overall machine tool market remains extremely competitive.

Recently, George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, approved a bill giving accelerated depreciation to companies purchasing machine tools and other equipment.

This new law allows 50% expensing in the first year of use and helps customers justify new machine tools sooner and easier.

Your board of directors has decided to have our association join the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) for lobbying and for other benefits.

CFIB has approximately 105,000 Canadian member companies and as a result receives an audience from Ottawa easily and promptly. Our membership now has 11 member companies that belong to CFIB.

While your board of directors feel that there are many benefits, they also feel that this will increase our exposure with Ottawa and possibly encourage a similar depreciation incentive in Canada.

It seems that most of the work putting this together in the U.S.A. was accomplished by AMT. We will be advising you of the advantages of membership and possibly encourage your participation. Individual membership starts at $265.00 for a one man organization.

Your association has hired Mr. Dave Prentice to be the presenter at a seminar organized for November 20, 2003 at the Toronto Curling Skating and Cricket Club.

Dave Prentice is one of Canada's most dynamic sales and marketing professionals. He is President of Learning Corp. Inc., a very successful training and management consulting firm. This session will focus on advanced skills, techniques and strategies to create the conditions that give you a competitive edge. Specifically, the session will deal with the concept of "value based selling". Success in sales seldom just happens. Success in sales takes hard work, skills, techniques and sales strategies. This event will be an interactive learning experience that reinforces skills and introduces new ideas and approaches. In addition, it will be fun, lots of fun.

The CMTDA’s purpose and objectives

How to join the CMTDA

Any individual, partnership, firm, company or corporation may be elected to membership in the CMTDA by an affirmative vote of not less than 2/3 majority of the current directors of the Corporation. A regular member is one which maintains an office or other recognized place of business, represents at least one recognized manufacturer of machine tools on an exclusive basis in a designated territory, carries its own accounts, is established and actively engaged in the distribution of machine tools in Canada for at least one year at the time of application, does at least 51% of its business in new machinery and provides monthly orders booked data in the format set out by the Corporation. Contact the CMTDA at P.O. Box 262, Minden, ON K0M 2K0.  Phone (705) 286 6921 or fax (705) 286 6905.