Suppliers get serious about export market

Canadian producers of mining equipment and services are getting serious about marketing their know-how beyond their borders. And they are beginning to see the advantages of a co-operative, joint marketing approach.

“Our goal is to make us look like the Swedes,” Managing Director John Baird said at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE). “Why do they look so big? Because they get together and talk to government.” (Sweden is a leading exporter of mining equipment.)

To achieve this goal, CAMESE plans to:

publish a catalogue of detailed information on member firms, their products and services for the benefit of Canada’s trade commissions worldwide and potential buyers;

~~~– attend five trade shows worldwide which might not normally be attended by individual members;

— publish a quarterly newsletter for distribution to 5,000 to 10,000 potential buyers around the world; and

— continue to transmit CAMESE bulletins to members.

Membership in the association is up dramatically in the first six months of this year and is expected to reach 100 by year-end.

There are about 700 current and potential exporters of mining-related goods and services in Canada.

A new board of directors was elected at the Toronto meeting and John Baird was appointed managing director. Baird, who honed his skills over many years with Scintrex, brings a wealth of international marketing experience to CAMESE.

Governments in Ottawa, Toronto and Quebec City were represented at the meeting and are fully supportive of the ideas put forward by CAMESE. Mark House of the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, for example, told members his ministry hopes to announce “within weeks” a 3-year, $770,000 program to help fund some of the association’s ideas.

“There is too much of a gap between the government and the industry,” Baird says. “But it’s not the government’s fault. We don’t get together to tell them what we have to offer the export market. We’ve got a 2-3-year building program here.”

Baird, 52, is a geophysicist who speaks five languages and has visited 70 countries during his 25 years of international sales and marketing experience with Scintrex.

CAMESE can be contacted at: Suite 903, 505 Consumers Rd., Willowdale, Ont. M2J 4V8. Tel. (416) 498-0382 Fax (416) 492-8711.