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CMTS 2009 surprisingly upbeat
While conditions are slowly improving in the North American automotive sector, the Canadian auto parts sector isn’t quite out of the woods yet, according to Linda Hasenfratz, chief executive officer of Linamar Corp., Guelph, ON.
- October 29, 2009
- News Release
- Metalworking
“The automotive industry has clearly had a very, very difficult year
including a wrenching restructuring that has left no company, with any
kind of focus in the automotive sector, unaffected,” Hasenfratz told
the audience during her keynote address at the recent Canadian
Manufacturing Technology Show 2009 (CMTS).
According to Hasenfratz, vehicle production should total
approximately 8.5 million units this year, down more than 30% from last
year’s levels which were down 20% from 2007. “The good news is that the
current levels of production that we are seeing are certainly not
indicative of where we should be in North America just based on the
number of drivers that we have. As a result, we expect to see things
starting to come back up and we feel that a good, sustainable level of
sales and production in North America is somewhere between 13 to 15
million units. We’ve already started to see production pick up.”
Obviously, she continues, there has been a significant negative impact
on the automotive supply base which could become even worse. “We’ve had
close to 50 bankruptcies filed in the automotive supply base this year
and the worry is that it’s not over yet. There are a lot of suppliers
out there that are breaching bank convenants. The banks are not
inclined to loan money to the automotive industry...and there is a
worry that we will see another wave of bankruptcies.”
Despite the economic turmoil swirling around the automotive and
manufacturing sectors, this year’s CMTS was surprisingly upbeat. “We
are stepping up in business this year. I think we have come up
approximately 12% in sales from where we were in May. Things have been
dormant for a while but they are starting to come back,” says David
Toomey, general manager with Seco Tools Inc., Milton, ON.
According to Toomey, one area of focus at Seco’s booth was highlighting
recent product introductions such as JetStream tooling and the Square 6
shoulder milling cutter. “We’re still focusing on marketing both the
JetStream tooling and Square 6 milling cutter because we’ve only
started to break the surface with these products. Since (these products
were introduced) things have been slow. However, now that business is
picking up people are starting to see the value in these products.”
At Indianapolis, IN-based Hurco USA’s booth, the highlight was a
display of the company’s five-axis VM10U machining center. The
machine’s integrated trunnion table provides exceptional part
clearances and larger part capacity. The VM10U includes the integrated
Hurco control with powerful five-axis software features that eliminate
redundancy and streamline setup.
Bill Phillips, international sales manager with Hurco USA,
Indianapolis, IN, was particularly pleased with the response from show
attendees to the VM10U machine. “We’ve had a good response. We’ve had a
number of our larger customers in the aerospace market drop by to see
us here who were interested in replacing some of their older three-axis
machines with five-axis machines,” says Phillips.
Likewise, Dan Hannigan, vice president of sales with K&K
Productivity Solutions Inc., Cambridge, ON, also sees signs that
business is coming back. “The economy is what it is but we are starting
to get some good feedback from customers that things are starting to
turn around. There is also a lot more quoting going on as well.”
K&K, which represents Methods Machine Tools in Canada, displayed
the KIWA KH-45 horizontal machining center at the show. According to
Hannigan, a major selling point of the KIWA KH-45 HMCV is that it
features in-the-field expandable tool and pallet technology.
“The 120 tool machine that we are displaying here can be expanded on
the customer’s floor up to 240 tools. The machine comes standard with
two pallets but it can also be fitted with four, six, or eight pallets
on the customer’s floor,” says Hannigan.
At Arlington Heights, IL-based Prima Finn-Power North America Inc.’s
booth, the firm was introducing its new FAST BEND (FBe) bending machine
for the first time in North America. “This is the introduction of this
machine in the North American market. From CMTS, the machine will be
going down to FABTECH,” says Michael Stock, bending product manager
with Prima Finn-Power. Continues Stock, “What we’ve come out with in
the FAST BEND is a standalone machine that is good at one-piece flow of
a broad variety of parts,” says “Typically with a bending machine, you
spend all day setting the machine up and one minute bending the part
and then setting the machine back up for a different part. With the
FAST BEND, I can set up the machine to bend the same part in 10 to15
seconds.”
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