The construction industry contributes a large and growing share of the New Zealand economy, with total employment rising to almost 10% and value added (GDP contribution) rising to about 9% by 2012. While aggregate statistics have raised some concerns about poor construction productivity, the New Zealand construction industry is not an underperformer when looked at through the lens of individual firms.
Using firm-level data, this study finds that over the period 2001–2012, labour productivity of the average firm in the construction industry grew by 1.7 percent annually and MFP by 0.5 percent annually, compared with 0.5 and 0.1 percent annually respectively for the overall measured sector.
Within the construction industry, productivity growth rates vary markedly by sub-industry and other firm characteristics. Labour productivity is more widely dispersed than is MFP. High-productivity firms tend to be younger, more likely to be a new start-up, to belong to a business group, and to locate in Auckland than low-productivity firms. Working-proprietor-only firms are slightly less productive on average than employing firms, while displaying more productivity dispersion (both more high productivity firms and more low productivity firms).
A Motu Economic and Public Policy Research (MOTU) press release, May 12, 2016
NZTech is organising a major New Zealand education technology summit in Auckland on July 5 and 6 for schools, tertiary institutes, edtech organisations and relevant government departments.
Muller says technology is becoming increasingly vital in today’s teaching environment, as part of the curricula, part of the classroom and the wider school infrastructure.
“Technology needs to be seamlessly integrated to ensure students are well prepared for the digital economy of the future. This summit brings together tech leaders and teachers to focus on the challenges and opportunities tech presents.
“The tech sector is the fastest growing sector in New Zealand and with this comes an insatiable demand for skilled graduates. There are almost 100,000 people working within the tech sector, and a further 20,000 ICT workers employed in other sectors.
“These people are some of the highest paid in New Zealand, have incredibly diverse and interesting roles and are building the future. Yet the tech sector continues to struggle to fill roles. As the catalyst for the growth of the economy it is essential that more children develop an interest in science technology engineering and maths subjects and can get on a pathway that will lead them to opportunities across the diverse and growing tech ecosystem.
“The tech leaders and policy makers at the summit will align around critical actions needed to develop tomorrow’s tech workers. They will seek solutions from questions such as: Is the curricula ready? Are there enough teachers prepared? How can we excite and encourage the children? Are there clear pathways into tech jobs? Is the industry reaching far enough into education to support?
“Edtech will be a $200 billion global market opportunity by 2017. We can learn from this market for our New Zealand schools and for the development of our education technology businesses. We will be looking at the future for digital technologies through to hearing from local edtech organisations.
“Other topics include: Ed Tech Futures – where will we be in the next 10 years? digital disruption in education technology – closing the gap for 21st century education; the road to export markets – capabilities, experiences and the next great opportunities; Mindsets and the future of education technology; and what is the perfect environment for innovation to occur in schools?”
Technology is becoming increasingly important in New Zealand schools – whether as part of the teaching curricula, part of the classroom or the wider school infrastructure. Technology needs to be seamlessly integrated into today’s teaching to ensure students are well prepared for the digital economy of the future, Muller says.
A Make Lemonade press release May 10, 2016
Earlier this week I read an article which talked about the bureaucratic nightmare that the amended health & safety at work bill is turning out to be for businesses. Apparantly there has been a significant increase in worried people contacting insurance companies looking at taking out more insurance as a way to protect themselves against what they don't know about.
This worry tends to penetrate further into organisations and can have a negative effect on an organisations daily operation and those who provide services/products to it. A good example was recently a personal friend, who happens to be a potter of considerable skill, was asked to run a class for a local Hawke's Bay pottery group to teach adult students, new to pottery, on how to use a potters wheel.
This was all well and good until she was told that she would be required to give a 10 minute lecture on health and safety before she began the class!
Now it would seem that here is an organisation that was keen to deflect their health and safety responsibilities to a third party and so take advantage of the uncertainty around what the reality of the new laws actually are. Their premises, their responsibilty; not a good look for the pottery group really.
An interesting comment to from health and safety advisor Gordon Anderson, he said, " What so many never consider is the name of the HSWA Act it's the The Health and Safety at Work Act. It’s not about homes, there’s too much misinformation and misinformed people out there making up their own rules based on their lack of understanding."
from the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk - Max Farndale May 12, 2016.
Mr Wright said nobody really knows what their requirements and responsibilities are under the new Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
said today he has been inundated with inquiries from worried people who don't understand the legislation and are looking at more insurance as a way to protect themselves against what they don't know.
"I guess you could say that people are trying to insure their way through a bureaucratic minefield."
"We've had calls from paint and panel beater shops, clothing manufacturers, landlords and tradesmen, and they're all viewing the act like it's a poisonous snake – but some things they believe they need to do are just too cost prohibitive or not applicable.
Registrations are now open for a new global food integrity conference to be held in Auckland on 13 – 14 July. Now is a key time on the world stage for food safety with regulations and requirements changing worldwide and impacting the entire food chain of suppliers and producers.
New Zealand’s supply chain with China is at the forefront of the inaugural Food Integrity Conference 2016.
Initiated by local company, Asia Pacific Centre for Food Integrity, the Conference aims to provide a forum for discussion on current issues facing food producers both in New Zealand and in China.
Developing markets, especially China, are driving New Zealand’s food and beverage export growth with Asia now the largest destination region.
Asia Pacific Centre for Food Integrity, Executive Director and Conference Organiser, Dr Helen Darling, sees great potential for New Zealand to play globally as a leader in food safety and security.
“We see this conference as an exciting opportunity for like-minded people to have conversations about the international regulatory environment,” says Helen.
“We need to avoid everyone reinventing the wheel – New Zealand is a small country and to be competitive in the international marketplace we need to share knowledge and leadership. This Conference is an exciting and relevant forum to do this.”
High powered international and local speakers have literally been lining up to speak, says Helen.
“It’s really exciting to see the enthusiasm of both international and New Zealand experts in the food industry lining up to be involved in the Conference.
I believe it’s an indication of the need for a forum of this kind for food producers, manufacturers and exporters.”
International keynote speakers include Col. John Hoffman from the USA, retired from a 31 year military career, Hoffman is now with the Food Protection and Defence Institute – a US Department of Homeland Security Centre of Excellence based at Minnesota University.
Sonia Bradley from the World Bank, Global Food Safety Programme, will start day two of the Conference with a key note address on Global Food Safety.
Speakers from China include Professor Wu, Chief Scientist, China National Centre of Food Risk Assessment in Beijing; and Kevin Wang, Editor-in-Chief, China Food Safety Magazine.
Local business woman Rachael Speedy is a vibrant and passionate speaker with a formidable reputation gained from running her successful company, NZ Premium Foods. Well renowned for exporting premium New Zealand food and beverages to South East Asia, as well as throughout New Zealand, Rachael is also involved in organising the Conference.
Australasian based Karl Ye, Managing Director, GMP Pharmaceuticals, joins Executive Director Export NZ, Catherine Beard and Hamish Findlay, General Manager, ESR Ltd to discuss export opportunities.
For a full Conference programme, registration and further details please refer to www.food-integrity-conference.com
New Zealand is fast transitioning from feeding Westerners to feeding the Asia Pacific region.
In 1965, (51 years ago) our food and beverage export to Asia accounted for only 5% of our total export value by destination. In 2014 it was up to 46%.
Contact:Asia Pacific Food Integrity Conference, Helen Darling, 021 479 958, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
APress release May 11, 2016
Nineteen bulls emerged from rugged Upper Hutt bush, bedraggled and bewildered, into the heart of suburbia.
Fresh from a night which some had spent hanging in trees or tangled in fences, they were herded from the bush about 9.30am on Wednesday but the drama – especially for startled Pinehaven residents – was far from over.
The flock were headed for the meat works when the trailer they were in tipped in Blue Mountains Rd in Upper Hutt on Tuesday night.
No lawful impediment to the union is pending
11 May 2016, Reserve Bank - New Zealand’s financial system is resilient and continues to function effectively, but risks to the financial stability outlook have increased further in the past six months, Reserve Bank Governor, Graeme Wheeler, said today when releasing the Bank’s May Financial Stability Report.
“Although New Zealand’s economic growth remains solid, the outlook for the global economy has deteriorated. Despite highly accommodative monetary policies and low oil prices, growth is slowing in a number of trading partner economies.
“Dairy prices remain low with global dairy supply continuing to increase. Many farmers now face a third season of negative cash flow with heavy demand for working capital.
“Imbalances in the housing market are increasing with house price inflation lifting again in Auckland, after cooling in late 2015 and early 2016 following new restrictions in investor loan-to-value ratios and government measures introduced in October.
“House prices have also begun increasing strongly in a number of regions across New Zealand, although house prices outside Auckland are generally much lower relative to incomes.
“The Bank remains concerned that a future sharp slowdown could challenge financial stability given the large exposure of the banking system to the Auckland housing market. Further efforts to reduce the imbalance between housing demand and supply in Auckland remain essential. This includes measures such as decreasing impediments to densification and greenfield development and addressing infrastructure and other constraints to increased housing supply.”
Deputy Governor, Grant Spencer, said: “In the banking system capital and liquidity buffers are strong and profitability is high.
“However, the system faces challenges. Internationally, credit spreads have widened, placing upward pressure on the cost of funds for New Zealand banks.
“The level of problem loans in the dairy sector is expected to increase significantly over the coming year, although we expect that dairy losses will be absorbed mainly through reduced earnings.
“While the moderation in house price inflation has been transitory, the LVR restrictions have substantially reduced the proportion of risky housing loans on bank balance sheets. This is providing an ongoing improvement to financial system resilience.
“The Reserve Bank is closely monitoring developments to assess whether further financial policy measures would be appropriate.
“The Reserve Bank continues to make progress on key regulatory initiatives. Consultation papers on proposed changes to the outsourcing policy for banks and on changes to bank disclosure requirements will soon be released. A consultation paper has also recently been released on crisis management powers for financial market infrastructures.”
11 May 2016 - As the world grapples with a seemingly insurmountable food wastage crisis, one company believes it has developed a new technology to help deal with the problem before it starts.
It is estimated that about one-third of all food produced worldwide goes to waste each year, worth around US$1 trillion.
While much effort goes in to dealing with food waste at the consumer end, most of the problem occurs somewhere between the producer and the retailer. In the Asia Pacific region, 15% to 50% of fruit is estimated to be lost between the grower and the market.
This is where New Zealand startup RipeTime, which is talking to potential investors in Taiwan, believes it has the answer. The company’s technology detects extremely low levels of gas in the atmosphere, which is used to track fruit quality as it is moved through the supply chain.
“We can smell, and essentially taste fruit, months before it is currently possible to do,” founder Jon Lowy told The News Lens in an interview in Taipei.
The company believes there are many markets its product can be used in – including testing for the presence of drugs. It is currently focused on fruit and vegetables, which have the highest wastage rates of any food, and flowers. The UN puts global food losses and waste at 40% to 50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, compared to 20% for meat and dairy and 35% for fish.
Major costs and lost revenue
The RipeTime device collects atmospheric data from within fruit packaging immediately after it has been harvested. In the case of apples, the data it collects can tell producers whether a particular box has apples with problems such as early stage rot. In one brand the company has tested its product on, 1% of the apples have this problem.
“The brand that owns this apple, 1% of their customers bite into them and taste dirt. It ruins their market image and people don’t buy [the apples] again,” Lowy says.
RipeTime director Michael Vukcevic says if the problem can be identified immediately after harvest, the apples can still be eaten within 25 days – that compares to the one-year life expectancy normal apples have in cold storage.
“They know, when they see that signal, they have to get it to a market, sold and consumed within 25 days,” he says. “What it is not for, is to be put on a boat to be sent to China, Japan and the US.”
The value of food losses and waste amount to roughly US$680 billion in industrialized countries and US$310 billion in developing countries. As well as the costs of produce that goes off and the potential brand damage, there is also the lost revenue companies face.
Lowy and Vukcevic give the example of New Zealand kiwifruit exporter Zespri, which is a well-known brand in Taiwan. It sells more than 20 million trays of kiwifruit to China and around 10 million to Taiwan annually. In Zespri’s best year for what is known as cost of quality – the total cost of sorting, losing and disposing of fruit – the company still took a NZ$150 million hit.
“It costs them NZ$150 million, by not being able to determine and predict the condition of fruit accurately,” Vukcevic says. That doesn’t include the revenue lost from not selling fruit at a time when there is nothing else in the market but demand is high.
Lowy says just last year Zespri scrapped millions of trays of fruit late in the season – a time when a single kiwifruit could fetch CNY$30 in China.
Taiwanese eye investment
RipeTime was in Taiwan last week and has been talking to potential investors and customers around the world. The company has already raised cash and run a rights issue with shareholders – a small group of early stage investors including the New Zealand government's Venture Investment Fund. It is now looking for more capital while concurrently negotiating its first commercial deals. The cash the company raises will go toward the commercialization process and continuing research and development.
Vukcevic says the company could spend US$5 million to US$20 million over the next few years depending on the investment it secures.
“The amount of money equals the speed at which we would travel,” Vukcevic says. “We are very much of the view that we have de-risked the technology, we know that it works. The market validation we have had to-date has been very strong. We are now in that execution and roll-out stage, which for us is very exciting.”
In terms of competition, Lowy says that most other players in the market are focused on developing the electronic sensor technology, which is used after the RipeTime product is used.
“Amazingly, nobody does this,” Lowy says of the competitive space RipeTime is in – he says most testing at the early stage is still done manually.
While the company is currently focused on securing the capital it needs to grow – it is very upbeat about the venture capital and investment scene in Taiwan – the potential impact of the solution has not been lost.
The UN notes that if a quarter of the 1.3 billion tonnes currently lost or wasted globally each year was saved, “it would be enough to feed 870 million people.”
Vukcevic says if food wastage in Chile alone could be reduced by 10%, “we can pretty feed everyone in Africa.”
“Those sorts of changes have a significant impact," he says.
Rising shopper demand for goods means The Warehouse’s giant distribution centre at Rolleston is no longer big enough. A $13 million construction project aims to make it as half as big again.
The building is already bigger than six rugby fields at 34,000 square metres and sits on 10 hectares of land in the Izone Southern Business Hub, just west on the railway line.
It was built for The Warehouse in 2002 by the Selwyn District Council, which later sold it for $15m to an investment fund.
Now another 15,000sqm will be added to the structure, along with 2000sqm of container canopies and extra racking and conveyor systems, and extra yard and parking areas. The work includes $8m worth of construction just consented by the Selwyn District Council.
Jeff Matthews, business manager for Holmes Consulting who is running the development, said the project would involve a significant amount of work and the resulting building would be huge.
Construction will be done by Naylor Love. Steel and concrete for the project will not have to come far – both structural steel supplier Pegasus and concrete maker Cancast are also in the Izone business park.
The distribution centre stores goods for distribution to all the 25 Warehouse stores in the South Island. Two shifts of up to 75 workers each operate the complex from 6am to 11.30pm.
As well as its red shed stores, The Warehouse Group owns Warehouse stationery, appliance retailer Noel Leeming, and outdoors gear retailer Torpedo 7.
The group made $2.8 billion worth of sales in New Zealand last year. Its after-tax profit was $57m, a figure it expects to better by about 10 per cent this year.
Originally published in Logistics & Materials Handling May 6, 2016
South Australian company IMP technologies (IMPTEC) have developed a super fine crusher that reduces comminution costs.
The company is currently trialling a semi-commercial unit at Hallett Concrete in Adelaide, South Australia’s capital.
The machine is being used to turn the waste from black sand or iron sand into a replacement for Portland cement.
IMPTEC Director John Doherty said the crusher was a game-changing invention that could eventually be at the forefront of the industry.
“What we’re involved in is reducing the amount of energy, which is usually electrical, and the cost of media. You can also include lower maintenance costs because it’s just one machine,” he said.
“The energy density of the crusher is greater than other machines and reduces around 30 per cent of energy costs.”
Comminution is the essential processor of minerals into cement, more commonly Portland cement, a known producer of a number of greenhouse gases.
It also accounts for almost 40 per cent of total mining costs and three per cent of the world’s energy consumption, prompting the search for a more efficient solution.
Conventional methods include breaking down large rocks to a few centimetres, crushing them further to fit into a ball mill, and grinding the minerals with the help of media and water till the material came out in slurry form.
The machine shortens the process by merging the second and third stage. It is unique because it also able to run the process dry and without the use of media.
Doherty said the company plans to produce a fully commercial product by the end of the year.
“Our semi-commercial unit takes in orders of two tonnes per hour,” Doherty said.
“If it approves itself over the next few months, it would be good. We’re looking at scaling up to 100 tonnes per hour.”
The transformation of black sand or granulated slag into cement is a world first.
Last month IMPTEC was awarded the Statewide Super Innovation in Resources Award for its super fine crusher at the inaugural South Australian Resources Industry Awards.
The judging panel included the leader of the Minerals and Energy strand at the University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute Bill Skinner who said that as good deposits of high-grade minerals diminish, the need to grind more material finer was vital.
“Energy consumption is going to go up if we are trying to keep up with what is needed in terms of metals. So anything that is going to reduce the footprint of an operating plant is going to be good,” he said.
“Portland cement is very energy intensive to produce and produces a lot of CO2 in the process. If you are using something that is actually a waste product, that is what you want.”
“This (IMPTEC’s super fine crusher) particular technology offers much reduced energy consumption. Up scaling it is a challenge that needs to be overcome.”
A The Lead South Australia press release
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