Local medical equipment exporters see increasing health in foreign sales.

Prospects are blooming for medical equipment exports because of new opportunities in Eastern Europe and a weakened U.S. dollar, report some L.A. County medical products firms.

Until four or five years ago, the only buyers of medical equipment in Eastern Europe were government agencies, said Lynda Cole, vice president of marketing and sales for Culver City-based Scole Engineering Co. The company exports heart monitors and EKG analyzers or scanners.

But now physicians in Eastern European countries are starting to open private practices, and they need equipment, Cole said.

Scole Engineering is working with dealers in the Czech Republic to sell equipment there. It plans to sell its products to dealers, who will mark them up and sell them to doctors and hospitals, she said.

Right now Scole Engineering officials are providing dealers with demonstration equipment that they can show to prospective buyers, Cole said.

By the end of the year, Scole Engineering might sell two or three scanners, which cost $850 apiece, and 50 to 100 heart monitors, which range from $8,000 to $30,000 each, she projected.

Scole Engineering recently sold 10 scanners and 70 monitors, a $250,000 deal, to Poland's Ministry of Health. The scanners will be placed in government-controlled hospitals, Cole said.

The need for medical equipment in Eastern Europe is great, but securing financing in those countries is difficult, said Chuck Swenson, vice president of marketing and sales at Torrance-based MDT Corp., which exports sterilizing and cleaning equipment.

MDT is posting double-digit revenue growth from medical equipment exports, Swenson said. The weak U.S. dollar is spurring demand for medical equipment around the world, he said.

"Eight years ago, the dollar was so strong that it was difficult to justify the price of the product," Swenson said.

Another reason for the growth in demand for sterility equipment is an increased awareness around the globe of the need to control infections, he added.

Nationwide, medical product exports last year grew 9.5 percent over 1991, according to Debbie Palmer, president of Long Beach-based Palmer Company Export Management, which assists manufacturers in the health care industry to export their products.

The medical products industry is one of only two manufacturing industries in the U.S. with a current trade surplus, Palmer added. No figures were available specifically for Southern California.

But not all parts of the globe provide an export bonanza for U.S. medical equipment firms, Cole said.

It takes three to five years to get clearance to sell a medical product in Japan, for instance. And even if the product is approved, there is no guarantee it will sell, Cole said.

If exporters want to sell equipment there, "you really have to dedicate yourself to doing that one country," she said.

The European Community is the biggest growth region for U.S. medical product exports, Palmer said. It accounts for 40 percent of all such exports, she said.

Many local exporters agreed that the North American Free Trade Agreement should benefit their businesses.

No companies in Canada or Mexico manufacture either heart monitors or scanners, so Scole Engineering expects to increase its niche in those countries, Cole said.

Also, as NAFTA stimulates the Mexican economy, there should be increased demand for health care products south of the border, Swenson said.

Most medical equipment exports out of Southern California are transported by ship, but use of air cargo is rising for high-value and small-volume shipments, Palmer said. Air cargo companies have targeted health/medical product industries as a growth sector, she added.