Welcome to the summer edition of the CMTDA Newsletter. This marks the beginning of a new format for the newsletter; from here onward you will be receiving the newsletter electronically via your e-mail. This new format will allow us to expand the content without the restrictions we had with the printed version. We hope you like it. We encourage you to send us your comments and suggestion regarding the new format as our goal is to provide you with a great newsletter.

2005 has continued to challenge many machine tool distributors’ and builders’ the same. Not much has changed since our last newsletter, we are still reading and getting many mixed signals coming from the manufacturing sector. With the upcoming CMTS in Toronto (More about CMTS later) and FABTECH in Chicago this fall, we should be in for a strong closing of the year.

CMTDA will be holding elections this year at our upcoming Annual General Meeting on November 9 th. We are seeking a new candidate for our board, as Albert Leblanc of A.W. Miller Technical Sales Canada will be stepping down. Albert has served the CMTDA since 1997 and has been a fabulous asset to the association, fulfilling many positions within CMDTA from board of director (various responsibilities) to President and serving the last two years as Past-President. He has been a strong voice for the Quebec members and has brought better insight to the machine tool events in Quebec. Well done Albert! We thank you for your hard work and dedication to the industry and the CMTDA.

I too will be finishing my two-year term as President in November and will continue to serve the CMTDA as Past President and will assist our in-coming President, Brian Donnelly of Ferro Technique Ltd. Brian has been helping the CMTDA as a Director for many years and will do the CMTDA well in his new roll.

CMTDA held it’s spring social meeting June 9 th aboard the Pioneer Queen cruising the Toronto inner and outer harbors. What an evening, beautiful June weather, hot, hot, hot and that cool lake breeze, BBQ steak and salmon, good drink and best of all, a bunch of great friends from the machine tool industry. What a great time we all had, the photographs within the newsletter say it all.

In addition to all our friends who joined us, we had some special guests with us that evening, our honorary members. Mr. Buell Manning and his daughter Carole Edgar joined us. It sure was nice to see Buell, at 92 years of age; he is well known in the industry and had a lot of stories to share with us. Mr. Manning was president of the A.C. Wickman Company. John and Catherine Janovich, Mr. Jonovich was past president of UBJ. Jim Smith was there, along with Manfred and Trudy Jahn, Bob and Sandy Burnside and non other than the hard working CMTDA’s own executive director Jim Burrows along with his wife Marilyn, who by the way have just celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary the night before.

This is a great social event and we encourage you and your significant other to join us next year if you missed this occasion.

While on the subject of our cruise I would like to take this opportunity to thank our friends from the media, Canadian Machinery & Metalworking, MP & P, and Canadian Industrial Machinery who graciously provided us with the evening’s liquid refreshments. Thank you!

Regarding the upcoming CMTS in Toronto later this year, CMTDA has been working relentlessly with the show organizers (Reed Expo) and Matcom, a.k.a Canadian Heavy Lift Services Inc., the group that looks after your heavy equipment rigging requirements at the show. We have been negotiating on our members’ behalf towards better move out rates, which at the time of writing have not been finalized, but will be soon. Regardless of the out-come, this will be a member’s only benefit.

Since this will be my last newsletter as President I would like to say it has been a pleasure and honor to serve the CMTDA, my only disappointment is that the time has gone by so fast. I’d like to thank our board of directors for their time, passion and efforts to make the CMTDA what it is today. A special thanks to Jim Burrows, our executive director who has helped me tremendously during my tenure. Jim truly is a man devoted to the CMTDA and very professional in everyway, not to mention a good friend.

Until our next meeting, I wish everyone prosperity, good selling and a safe summer.

Best Regards R. Kurt Neiman

Average order size in CNC metal cutting was; Horizontal Spindle Lathes, $140,500, Vertical Spindle Lathes, $149,600, Multi-tasking Lathes, $405,000, Vertical Machining Centers to 40” X axis, $121,000, Vertical Machining Centers over 40” X axis, $245,000, Vertical Machining Centers with 5 or more axis, $477,000, Horizontal Machining Centers to 4 axis, $409,000, Horizontal Machining Centers with 5 or more axis, $683,000, Milling Machines, $134,000, Horizontal Boring Mills, $869,000, Vertical Boring Mills, $724,500, Wire EDM, $164,000, Sinker EDM, $119,000, Grinders, $288,000, CMM’S, $128,000 and CNC Saws at $85,000.

Conventional Metal Cutting machine tools averaged $17,000. In the CNC Fabricating area, Press Brakes, $95,500, Shears, $56,600, Turret Presses, $347,000, Laser Profile Cutting, $715,500, Plasma Profile Cutting, $209,400, Water Jet Profile Cutting, $181,000 and Tube Benders, $574,000. In the non CNC fabricating area, the average sale was $19,700, while Metal Stamping and Forming averaged $21,700.

Our records show a significant increase in multi-tasking lathes, EDM Wire, Grinders, CMM’S and most Metal Forming.

We are pleased to welcome MC Machinery Canada, Darren Carroll, Vice President and Canadian Industrial Publishing, Tom Dillon, CEO as new members of CMTDA.

CMTDA will proceed with their compensation survey shortly. Members will be requested to input their information from their last fiscal year. The survey has been modified and put into XL format so members can send their information on line.

Due to the poor response from our regular members in 2004, we have cancelled our annual golf tournament for 2005. Last year, we had a good response from our associate members and the media, however it did not seem fair when we had very few regular members show interest.

After speaking with a number of exhibitors at the recent Western Manufacturing & Technology Show held in Edmonton, it appears to be another success. Comments ranging from “well worth the time and expense in attending it” to “we will certainly be here in two years” qualify the success of the show. According to Reed’s Bob Mathieu, the show had approximately 2,000 visitors and occupied the same floor space as 2003.

Preparations are well under way with Reed Exhibitions for our next major show “The Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show 2005” to be held at the National Trade Centre in Toronto from October 17th to October 20th . Reed have advised that floor space equal to the 2003 CMTS has been booked with three months remaining and further sales to come. Log on to www.Reedexhibitions.ca for further information and reservations. Further information for CMTDA members to follow.

Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for November 9, 2005 at the Toronto Cricket Club. We are fortunate to have two excellent speakers participating this meeting. We have changed the format of the meeting somewhat to be able accommodate two speakers rather than one.

Our program will still carry some committee reports and elections with cocktails and dinner to follow. We are pleased to have Mr. Don Lane, President & CEO of Makino and Ms. Catherine Swift, President of Canadian Federation Of Independent Business as our speakers.

Please mark your calendar for November 9th. It will be an excellent opportunity for you to get involved in your association, hear two top rate presenters and network with your peers in the machine tool distribution industry.

AMTDA ’s 80 th Annual Meeting themed “Recovery 2005 ” –Technological &Tactical Transitions – held April 10-13 in La Quinta, CA was a resounding success,according to the 205 members and guests who were there. Numerous networking opportunities and the timely education program, which combined an array of professional speakers and industry experts who addressed an economy – and an industry – on the upswing, were identified as the main attractions.

Mr.James C.Addy,CMTSE,President of Addy Machinery Company, was elected Chairman of AMTDA.As well, our own Director, Mr.Michael Carr, President of Elliott-Matsuura Canada, was elected to the Board of Directors of AMTDA for a three year term.

Due to increased costs,as I ’m sure all of you know about, CMTDA has decided to increase their annual fee for 2005/2006.Members are invoiced on September 1st and will see an increase of $100 to $600.

A little history notes that the board of directors set the rules for membership at a meeting in 1947. The rules for membership were:
  1.The Distributor must maintain an office and a place of business in Canada.
  2.Has exclusive representation for a minimum of three machine tool lines.
  3.Must carry his own accounts.  

Membership fee was set at $500.00

Since that time,fees were reduced to $400.00 with the support of the CMTDA sponsorship at CMTS in Toronto and Montreal.They were increased back to $500.00 in May of 1998. It seems that membership in CMTDA in 2005 has increased in value by our sponsorship and the many other programs members enjoy.Western Canada membership will remain at 50%due to some benefits not being applicable to them.

We are pleased to announce that Brian Donnelly,Vice President of Ferro Technique Limited,has been appointed Vice President and President Elect of the Canadian Machine Tool Distributors Association. CMTDAelections are held every two years and are coming up on November 9th at our AGM. Brian has been a CMTDA Director for four years and recently held the responsibility of Trade Shows. Congratulations Brian and we look forward to your continued service.

Due to our Past President, Albert Leblanc, retiring from your board, we are presently looking for a new director to fill the spot. We have approximately five director meetings per year. With a total of eight, the work-load is spread so it will not take extraordinary amount of time all are volunteers. Please call our President, Kurt Neiman, (905)715-7776, should you be interested.

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.

CMTDA Annual Spring Meeting