It is very unfortunate to hear of the proposed closure of manufacturer General Cable in Christchurch, with the loss of up to 170 quality jobs and affecting other local manufacturers supplying them. While conditions for many manufacturers have improved in recent years, this shows that pressure and uncertainty remains, say the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA).
NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “General Cable has been a solid part of the Christchurch manufacturing industry since the 1950’s, and it is sad to hear they may be closing. We hope their staff can be employed by other manufacturers in the area.
“Manufacturers do not operate in isolation, due to the complex supply chains that mean many other New Zealand manufacturers supply parts to companies like General Cable. A loss in one area can have wider effects than just the immediate loss of jobs and income. We need to keep a broad base of manufacturing in New Zealand and find ways to improve the manufacturing eco-system.
“It is a reminder that we cannot be complacent, there is more that can be done to help manufacturing businesses thrive in New Zealand, keeping capability here, along with jobs and vital export income. We hope to see quality discussion on how to make to most of our manufacturing base to grow exports and jobs going into the next election.” Says Dieter.
An NZMEA release
What makes you tick Illustration/Weef
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Wednesday 9 November 2016Last updated: 1535_____________________________________
- Mercer To Buy automation firm Haden & Custance for $2.25m
- Mainfreight first-half profit rises 27%, meeting guidance, as margins widen, Europe picks up
- Vegetable industry joins GIA partnership
- NZ Binxi offers to buy all of Blue Sky
- All jobs proposed to go at Christchurch-based cablemaker
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- The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them right away. - Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)
- New Zealand's population is now 269,388 short of 5 million
The vegetable industry has become the twelfth industry partner to join the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) biosecurity partnership, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has announced today.
“It’s great to have Vegetables New Zealand Incorporated signed up and working with the Ministry for Primary Industries and other industry partners,” says Mr Guy.
“It means we can work together on managing and responding to the most important biosecurity risks.
“Biosecurity is my number one priority as Minister and as the recent Biosecurity 2025 consultation document outlines, it is a shared responsibility requiring everyone’s input and expertise.”
The signing of the agreement was witnessed by the Associate Minister for Primary Industries, Jo Goodhew, at Parliament today.
Vegetables New Zealand represents all fresh vegetable crops other than potatoes, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, and buttercup squash. It represents over 900 growers who produce over 50 crops with a farm gate value of $390 million per annum.
They join TomatoesNZ, Kiwifruit Vine Health, Pipfruit New Zealand, New Zealand Pork, New Zealand Equine Health Association, Onions New Zealand, the Forestry Owners Association, The New Zealand Avocado Growers’ Association, New Zealand Citrus Growers Incorporated and the Ministry for Primary Industries under GIA.
Cheap Chinese imports has forced a longstanding Masterton factory to close down. In September, Sliderite owner Dave Revell bit the bullet and shut his Ngaumutawa Rd business.
He said he was left with little choice. “Basically most of the things we used to make, a lot of zips and bits and pieces for clothing, well of course most of that comes in already made up from China these days,” Mr Revell said. “In the early days of course everybody wanted quality, but in the end price rules. “And like a lot of manufacturing in New Zealand, in the end you just can’t compete.”
He bought the factory 26 years ago, after working there since the 1970s. About 12 years back Mr Revell employed about 40 staff. But it was just himself and his three remaining employees affected when the factory doors closed for the final time.
The company started out as Rondo, which was managed by General Plastics, a Petone-based Company which moved to Wairarapa in 1964.
Mr Revell said the New Zealand Government at the time was encouraging manufactures to move out of the Hutt to rural areas. The Government paid for the move, writing the loan off if the factory stayed for X number of years. Continue to full article in Wairarapa times Age
Tesla's Tuesday morning announcement that it is acquiring German engineering company Grohmann Engineering and forming Tesla Advanced Automation Germany puts more substance behind Tesla's ambition with manufacturing being seen as the company's top priority.
However a big vision, Tesla has moved its ambitious production target for achieving a 500,000 annualized build rate two years earlier, from 2020 to 2018, requires significant talent. "After increasing our output target to 500,000 cars per year by 2018, we began searching for the best engineering talent in automated manufacturing systems," Tesla said in a Nov. 8 blog post. "Today, we are excited to announce that Tesla has entered into an agreement to acquire Grohmann Engineering, a world-renowned engineering company in Prm, Germany, which will become Tesla Grohmann Automation."
The Chicago based private equity firm Liquid Asset Brands who last year aquired a majority stake in New Zealand rum company Stolen Spirits is in the process of establishing a new craft distillery, Blind Pig Distilling. The distillery will be located in one of the city's planned manufacturing districts, areas that have proven useful to breweries and distilleries in part because they prohibit residential use. The city is assessing the future use of its 26 industrial corridors, which encompass 15 planned manufacturing districts.
The psychology behind voting: What makes you tick. As Americans prepare for an unprecedented election and Brits continue to reel from the Brexit fallout, Joanne Black looks at the psychology and genetics of how we vote in this weeks edition of The Listener.
Entertainment, puzzlement call it what you may but this latest round of presidential elections in the US have transfomed politics into a form of entertainment no matter the seriousness of the outcome.
Air New Zealand has signed a licensing agreement to overhaul and repair auxiliary power units (APUs) produced by Honeywell Aerospace at its Christchurch engineering and maintenance base.
The eight year deal will see Air New Zealand as the only certified Honeywell maintenance shop for the APU 131-9A model in Oceania and will see the airline maintain and repair APUs, which power aircraft while on the ground, for Air New Zealand and third party customers based around the Asia Pacific region.
The agreement will also create 45 new jobs in Christchurch, the majority of which are high skilled engineering jobs.
Air New Zealand Chief Operations Officer Bruce Parton says the agreement is significant for the airline’s engineering business.
“Honeywell Aerospace is a major player in the airline components industry, supplying APUs to around 75 percent of the world’s narrow body jet fleets. This agreement will allow us to continue to grow our component MRO business in Christchurch and remain competitive within the region,” says Mr Parton.
Honeywell Aerospace Vice President, Airlines, Asia Pacific, Brian Davis says, “We are delighted to sign this licensing agreement and excited to cultivate a strong relationship with Air New Zealand through sharing of best practices and technical skillsets that will bring Air New Zealand closer to its long term goals. Honeywell’s business strategy is highly dependent on tapping into local talent and resources to develop not only a unique understanding of customers’ operational requirements, but also the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to meet customers’ current and future needs.”
“The licensing agreement with Air New Zealand will allow us to help airlines in the region achieve time and cost savings with quicker turnaround by seeking support from the regional facility.”
Air New Zealand has also selected the Honeywell APU 131-9A for its new fleet of A320neo (new engine option) aircraft. The airline announced in June 2014 it was investing in new A320neo aircraft to refresh its international A320 narrow body fleet. The first aircraft is due for delivery in late 2017. The airline will also retrofit its existing A320 short haul fleet of 13 aircraft with Honeywell APUs.
Nanogirl presents her explosive live science show "Little, Big Bang"_____________________________________
Tuesday 8 November 2016Last updated: 1430_____________________________________
- NZME shares slump to new low as regulator takes dime view on Fairfax deal
- NZTE Export News 8 November 2016
- Man's arm crushed in conveyor belt, awarded $52k compensation
- Promoting financial stability in the rapidly evolving financial services landscape
- Commission proposes to decline NZME/Fairfax merger
- Port pleads case for dredging
- Anand Reddy: Clinton win best result for NZ exporters
- Free first step to future proof your building
- Former Ugg boot manufacturer in receivership
- Round the World racer rolls out Supermaxi conversion in Tauranga
- Mindless Mothballing Of Rail
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. - J. K. Rowling
Five Million Population?As of this morning 269,679 to go . . .
Adjudicator wants new angle on proposed merger filed by March 2017 deadline
Just as everyone else including the proprietors themselves were giving up on newspapers the Commerce Commission has seized the print cause with a vigour and enthusiasm absent for many years now from the industry itself.
The Commission which arbitrates on New Zealand’s mergers and acquisitions from the competitive point of view has fastened upon newspaper diversity as their reason for vetoing the merger of the nation’s two newspaper publishing chains, the locally owned NZME and the Australian owned Fairfax.
As if mirroring the newspaper editorial quest for a new angle on something familiar, the Commerce Commission instead of fastening upon the mechanical aspect of the consolidation especially in regard to printing instead focused on the loss of editorial independence attendant upon such a merger.
Giving this point a big headline the Commission observed that such a single-owner concentration of publishing would put New Zealand only one place behind China with its single party ownership of the media.
The result of the first round of the merger application by the two chains has thus come as a surprise to the applicants.
The feeling had been that any objections to the fusion would be related to print production economies and thus the loss of jobs ensuing from the telescoping of the two chains comparatively numerous printing works.
One reason for this is that the two applicants in their joint submission outlined a surprisingly small joint saving from centralised mechanical production.
In effect the Commission in the manner of a stern but fair editor has told the two operators to come back to them. Next time with a better story. The deadline for filing is March next year.
The meaning of the Commission’s intent is in fact spelled out in its emphasis on what it describes as the need “for a well-established liberal democracy".
This it made clear was not attainable with “one organisation controlling nearly 90 per cent of the country's print media market.”
The Commission’s confidence in the economic future of print media will in a curious way re-invigorate the two supplicant chains as they seek to define a winning formula to compete with the free model in which social networks of one description or another have taken over the subscriber system once symbolised by print dailies.
It is obvious that neither of the chains foresaw the Commission adopting this editorial content diversity angle. The Commission in a curious way has revealed the emphasis that certain sectors of society still place on news as news.
From the MSCNewsWire reporters'desk Tuesday 8 November 2016
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242