On November 20, CMTDA held its 61st Annual General Meeting at a new location, the Toronto Cricket, Curling & Skating Club in Toronto. All in all, it was an excellent meeting and evening. Association members listened to an acciomplished speaker, Alan Simmons of the Simmons Group and enjoyed fine food and wine. Approximately 75 members and guests heard from our different committees pertaining to Trade Shows, Membership, Education, Government Relations and Statistics.

Based on our Statistics report, the road of change and growth is never ending, and that road for 2003 has been a difficult one for some in our industry. Compared to the recorded high in November, 2002 today’s metal cutting is down 47%, while metal fabrication’s recorded high in October, 2002 is down 34.3%. The only sector to see positive growth during the period October, 2002 to September, 2003 was CNC and non-CNC fabricating machinery. However, the dollar value for this equipment was down 13.9% over the same period.

Thank you to all of our members and guests for making our meeting a success. We all owe Jim Burrows our appreciation for his coordination in scheduling our meeting.

Next, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kurt Neiman. I have been serving as a Director of the CMTDA since the fall of 1999. My first job as a Director was responsibility for Trade Shows. For the past two years, I have served as Vice-President. This year, as President, I am replacing Albert LeBlanc who so generously gave us his time, dedication, guidance and effort serving the CMTDA. Thank you Albert!

Albert will continue with CMTDA as Past President. His support and advice is always welcomed.

Plans are well under way for 2004! Your CMTDA Board of Directors is working on many issues that concern all of us, which will be addressed in future issues of our newsletter or via e-mail. We also have some social events planned including the annual Spring Boat Cruise on the Toronto Harbourfront and the 3rd annual CMTDA Golf Classic in August.

In case you haven’t heard, CMTDA has a new website. Check it out at www.cmtda.com. Here, you can directly make changes to your own listing, create links to your own page and/or your builders, as required. If you haven’t done so already, we urge you to input your information as soon as possible. As we come to the close of the year, I would like to wish our members, associates and friends Season’s Greetings. I hope you will always feel free to share your thoughts, concerns and ideas with us - we are only a phone call or e-mail away. We look forward to seeing everyone in 2004 and wish you safety, happiness and prosperity in the coming year.

Best Regards

Kurt Neiman, President

by CMTDA Executive Director Jim Burrows

Sales for machine tools in Canada show a drop in units of 13% and in dollars of 6% at the end of October compared to 2002. While interest at CMTS was brisk, resulting orders have been disappointing. Average order size in CNC metal cutting was $225,000 for horizontal spindle lathes; $381,000 for vertical spindle lathes; $160,000 for VMCs; $421,000 for HMCs; $688,000 for boring mills; $199,000 for wire EDM; $131,000 for sinker EDM; $284,000 for grinders; and $158,000 for CMMs. Conventional metal cutting machine tools averaged $18,300. In the CNC fabricating area, press brakes totalled $100,000; turret presses were $319,000; profile cutting was $680,000; and an average CNC fabricating machine was $186,000. In the non CNC fabricating area, the average sale was $17,000, while metal stamping and forming averaged $46,000. There has been a significant increase in vertical spindle lathes while larger equipment like vertical and horizontal boring mills have been hit hard and numbers have decreased substantially since 2000. Conventional metal cutting machine tools have also suffered a 17% decrease in units and 15% decrease in dollars from this period last year.

On August 21, members of CMDTA and their guests participated in the CMTDA’s annual golf classic at Pheasant Run Golf Club, Newmarket, ON.

The event drew a total of eight foursomes and the weather (35°C) provided us with a gorgeous day.

Pheasant Run is a par 72 course with 27 championship holes over three distinctive nines. During our tournament, the Scramble Format rules were observed.

The wining foursome, with a score of -6, was comprised of Bob Kanarek of A.W. Miller, Greg Papke of Mazak, Bob Mathieu of Reed Exhibitions and Ted Rimmer. In addition to a trophy, each player also received a top quality driver. The trophy and the drivers were donated by MP&P. Our second place winners, with an even par, were Colin Parkin, Stan Krajewski of Commerce Custom Brokers, Steve Stein of Ferro Technique and Tom Maduri of CIP. Tied for third place, with a score of +1 were Doug Young, Mazak Laser; Albert Leblanc, A.W. Miller; Matthew O'Dwyer, Matcom Industrial Installations; and Colin Klein, CIP. Peter Turton of 600 Machine Tools, Wayne Piplivka of Ferro Technique, Harsh Bibra of Fagor Automation and Glen Alton of Canadian Machinery and Metalworking (Rogers Media) made up the other foursome. Colin Parkin won closest to the pin, and Jeff Girodat had the longest drive. Special thanks to all of our sponsors and congratulations to all the winners. Next year’s CMTDA Golf Classic will be announced shortly. Watch for further information to follow and be sure to book early. Many thanks to our sponsors, MP&P, CIM, CM&M, Reed, National Trade Center, Commerce Customs Brokers, CIT, Fagor Automation, Royal Products and Matcom Industrial for the prizes.

On Thursday, September 25, approximately 40 CMTDAmembers participated in a seminar sponsored by CMTDAand Reed Exhibitions at the Wyndham Bristol Place Hotel.

The subject covered “Breakthrough Thinking For Exhibitors”, an Exhibitor Success Workshop with Fred Fox. Fox is a renowned presenter on the art of booth presentation, booth sales personnel training and lead follow-up after the show.

The session was a very worthwhile three hours covering ideas in time for the Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show. Everyone appeared to leave enthused and anxious to try something new.

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.