Dec 8, 2017 - Higher sales volumes for chemicals and plastics producers helped lift manufacturing in the September 2017 quarter, Stats NZ said today.
The total volume of manufacturing sales rose 0.3 percent in the September 2017 quarter compared with the June 2017 quarter, when adjusted for seasonal effects. This follows a 1.0 percent increase in the June 2017 quarter.
Six of the 13 manufacturing industries saw sales rise in the September 2017 quarter. The largest movements were chemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing, up 3.7 percent, and transport equipment, machinery and equipment manufacturing, up 2.8 percent.
“The September quarter’s rise in chemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing sales followed a sizeable 8.5 percent fall in the June 2017 quarter,” manufacturing manager Sue Chapman said. “This industry includes the manufacturing of fertiliser, plastics, and rubber products.”
Meat and dairy product manufacturing sales seasonally fall in the September quarter, with sales volumes down 0.5 percent. This followed an 8.0 percent rise in the June 2017 quarter.
The actual volume of total manufacturing sales was unchanged from the previous September quarter. When price changes are included, the value of manufacturing sales was $25.3 billion in the September 2017 quarter, up $2.0 billion from the September 2016 quarter.
| A STATSNZ release || December 8, 2017 |||
Dec 8, 2017 - Over its long history, Canada’s banking industry has absorbed a range of adjacent players in the sprawling world of financial services: trust companies, investment dealers, property and casualty insurers, and wealth advisors. Many of these structural mergers involved both extensive regulatory reform as well as significant cultural shifts within the industry. Yet as Canada’s banks consolidated and expanded into these other verticals, they tended to impose their cautious ways rather than adopt the more free-wheeling ethic of the smaller players they had raced to acquire.
The fintech revolution, however, will demand a complete reboot of this well-established dynamic. As these ambitious startups evolve from giant-killing disrupters into innovation-minded partners for the banking sector, both sides are struggling to figure out how to live with one another.
Fintech firms offer entrepreneurial energy, innovative technologies and highly flexible consumer engagement techniques. But they also bring a healthy dose of impatience to a famously staid industry that was widely congratulated, almost a decade ago, for the corporate caution and regulatory prudence that allowed Canada’s banks to ride out the 2008 credit crisis.
Banks, for their part, are awakening to the realization that younger consumers want to do most of their banking on their mobile devices, which is also how they shop and consume news. The American Banking Association even published a tip sheet for its members on how to “make friends” with fintech.
It’s a tall order. The sluggish pace of in-branch or web-based banking and lending, hard-wired into the banking industry’s culture, is anathema to the fintech industry’s sense of urgency and opportunity, and reveals, to many of these startups, a reluctance to take chances on new mobile and data technologies.
Fintech firms offer entrepreneurial energy, innovative technologies and highly flexible consumer engagement techniques. But they also bring a healthy dose of impatience to a famously staid industry
As a former banking consultant who now helps raise capital for fintech startups, I can see both sides.
If it hopes to survive, the banking industry needs to find new ways of partnering with these nimble newcomers. Yet the learning has to happen in the other direction as well: if they want to succeed and grow, impatient fintech entrepreneurs must find ways to work with these large, closely regulated institutions.
Let’s start with the source of the chafing. Various fintech players with serious ambitions have told me they often feel worn down by bank clients’ insistence on historical performance data for innovations with no past, the dearth of seasoned innovation champions within these huge organizations, the lasting effects of legacy technologies, and frustratingly diffuse decision-making processes.
Risk aversion runs deep in the banking sector, and, in many cases, it seems to be a point of pride. As some fintech founders report, they’re often told by bank partners that every feature of a new service must work perfectly, while potential downsides are scrutinized to the point of exhaustion. And though fintech founders are acutely aware of the fast pace of their own industry, many come away from these encounters sensing that their banking partners have little sense of urgency.
Today, some banks are starting to see that there may be risks associated with their institutional inertia. Most have established innovation labs or are backing proof-of-concept projects with fintech partners. While some fintech startups express skepticism about these ventures, others offer up useful advice for their bank partners on how to make such forays succeed:
— resist the analysis-paralysis instinct and give your innovation teams sufficient scope to dive into proof-of-concept partnerships, knowing that some will fail
— ensure that there’s a business sponsor behind such pilot projects, as well as a path that leads to a possible deal, and
— be prepared to pay fintech partners for the value they create through successful initiatives that generate new service offerings and improved customer engagement.
But it’s a two-way street. Fintechs need the support of banks to help overcome one of their main challenges: getting to scale and ultimately putting products in front of customers. This can entail something of a Catch-22, however, because banks often seem to be more receptive to partnerships with fintech firms that have already created a compelling brand promise, have a consumer track record and bring their own investors or sponsors to the table.
Fintech options ease the pain points of financing for entrepreneurs ‘There’s no silver bullet here’: Global financial firms still grappling with fintech challenge, report finds
So, what does a successful partnership look like? These pairings, fintech firms say, will increase addressable market segments; demonstrate how an improved user experience leads to increased adoption; expand the lifetime value of a customer relationship; and focus on service offerings that minimize competitive tensions.
To work with fintech firms, banks also need to reconcile themselves to some unfamiliar practices, such as associating their brands with products and services they don’t necessarily own. And both parties have to find common ground on technical issues such as customer data sharing, anti-money-laundering/know-your-client compliance and which key performance indicators will be employed to measure success, given that at least initially, the new fintech partnerships are unlikely to make a dent in the top line.
As this difficult pairing game proceeds, it may be useful to look beyond the banking industry for learnings. My own suggestion: IBM in the early 1990s, when then-CEO Lou Gerstner, a former consumer packaged goods executive, radically shook up the sleepy culture of a massive tech manufacturer. Recognizing the mortal threats facing his company from both the hardware and software sides of the computer industry, Gerstner forced IBM’s tens of thousands of employees to begin thinking about creating business solutions that actually responded to its customers’ needs. The end result? During Gerstner’s tenure, among many other changes, he shut down unprofitable businesses and added valuable service offerings to the commoditized hardware business, increasing the market cap of IBM to US$168 billion from US$29 billion.
Simply put, fintechs are to the banking sector as Gerstner was to IBM: crucial change agents, pushing these giants to confront the uncertain future taking shape outside the walls of a fortified industry that’s far more exposed than Canada’s bankers may realize.
Change, as we know, is hard. Not changing, however, would be worse.
Roy Kao is senior advisor, Finance & Commerce, MaRS Discovery District. This article first appeared in the Ivey Business Journal.
| A Financial Post release || December 8, 2017 |||
Dec 8, 2017 - Tomorrow (Saturday) will mark 150 years since the opening of the Lyttelton Rail Tunnel, an engineering marvel which remains a key part of the KiwiRail network and important contributor to the local economy. When the Lyttelton Rail Tunnel opened on December 9, 1867, it was the first rail tunnel in New Zealand, and the first in the world to be drilled through the side of an extinct volcano.
Before the opening of the tunnel, it was difficult to transport Canterbury’s goods, such as wool, throughout the world. To reach Lyttelton Port, people and goods would need to travel over the Bridle Path or take long and complicated routes involving river and sea crossings.
With the support of Superintendent William Sefton Moorhouse (known as ‘Railway Billy’), it was decided a direct rail tunnel between Christchurch and Lyttelton was the best option.
The tunnel presented unprecedented challenges to the engineers involved, such as how to drill through hard volcanic rock, and was one of the country’s first great engineering works.
It has stood strong for 150 years, and while passengers no longer travel through the tunnel, it remains a vitally important transport route for exports from the region.
“Every year, our services carry 1.1 million tonnes of coal, 300,000 tonnes of logs and around 30,000 tonnes of general freight through the Lyttelton Rail Tunnel,” says KiwiRail Network Services Group General Manager Todd Moyle.
“The tunnel is essential to KiwiRail’s operations, those of Lyttelton Port Company and to the people of Canterbury, who rely on our services to export their goods to the world.
“Volumes are increasing into and out of LPC, which last year opened its Inland Port in Rolleston to help service increasing productivity from the Canterbury plains, making the tunnel as important as ever.
“We’re grateful to the engineers and officials who, more than 150 years ago, had the foresight and perseverance to design and build what has become a significant part of KiwiRail’s network and of New Zealand’s history.”
| A KiwiRail release ||| December 8, 2017 |||
Dec 8, 2017 - Switzerland’s national pursuit cycling team will make its debut at the 2018 New Zealand Cycle Classic held in the Wairarapa next January. While some of the riders have competed in New Zealand before, this will be the first time the team has competed in the iconic race, the only Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) 2.2 accredited tour staged in New Zealand which has been an annual sporting fixture for the past 30 years. The team will be led by experienced rider Thery Schir, who competed at the 2016 Olympic Games, finished fourth in the Madison at the 2016 World Champs and recorded strong results in the international tour of Portugal and Fleche Du Sud in the Netherlands. The Swiss team will use the NZ Cycle Classic as an important part of their preparation for the 2018 World Track championships, held in Holland in March. Schir is looking forward to visiting and competing in the Wairarapa from January 17th – 21st 2018.
“I am looking forward to exploring a new part of the world with the New Zealand Cycle Classic and hoping to sample some famous Martinborough wine after the tour,” said Schir.
The Swiss team features a who’s who of experienced riders including seasoned professional track and road rider Cyrylle Thiery, who finished fifth in the Tour of Hokkaido in Japan in 2016 and third in the sprints classification. He is the most experienced rider in the team with top places in this year’s tour of Colombia, South Bohemia Tour in the Czech Republic and the Tour of Greece.
Stefan Bissegger is the third member of the team and the 2016 winner of the Driedaagse Van Axel tour and sprints classification in the Netherlands. He is tipped to be an exciting rider to watch during the NZ Cycle Classic’s bunch stage finishes.
The rest of the team are Claudio Imhof, Frank Pasche and Gael Suter, all experienced riders in stage races around Europe.
Swiss team manager and national coach, Ross Machejefski, who is a New Zealander, chose to start the team’s year during a Kiwi summer to prepare his riders for the world championships later in March.
“This tour fits into a one month training block in New Zealand for the team to avoid the harsh Swiss winter! The riders are really looking forward to racing in the New Zealand summer and alongside some of Australasia's best road riders” Machejefski said.
New Zealand Cycle Classic race director Jorge Sandoval is thrilled to have the quality Swiss team make its debut in his event.
“Swiss riders are highly regarded all over the world, to have them here for the first time is a privilege for our event - they may be the Swiss “Track” team but I know how experienced they are in stage races, having seen their results and participation over the last few years in many stages races around the globe, they are coming here to do well and should be a strong team to beat,” said Sandoval.
The New Zealand Cycle Classic is recognised as the premier international road cycling event in this country and has developed a reputation for unearthing new talent, with many of the riders having gone on to win stages in the Tour de France, the Tour of Italy and world championship titles. In 2018 it will be held in the Wairarapa from January 17th – 21st with more riders coming from around the world. These teams will be announced in the coming weeks as will confirmation about whether 2017 Tour winner Joseph Cooper will defend his title.
The five-stage tour features two new routes that weave through Wairarapa’s rolling country side and will also see the team’s presentation held in a festive evening setting on Tuesday, 16th January in Masterton.
Being held simultaneously, is Huri Huri a series of community based cycling events designed to celebrate the Wairarapa’s bike-friendly roads, tracks and trails; the people that ride on them and the bikes they ride.
These include: an opportunity to explore the historic Castlepoint Station by bike along three different coastal tracks on Saturday, 20th January and a fun, family friendly evening at Mitre 10 Mega Masterton on Tuesday, 16th February. This promotional evening will include a freestyle BMX display; fun cycle obstacle course for children; a free barbecue and a promotional circuit ride for club riders. The elite teams will also ride the same Criterium circuit enabling spectators to get a taste of what exciting, international racing will unfold in the coming days.
DETAILS FOR THE 2018 NEW ZEALAND CYCLE CLASSIC
Teams Official Presentation & Promotional Criterium: Tuesday, 16th January 2018
Mitre 10 Mega Masterton, eveningIncludes teams presentation, Criterium, Huri Huri BMX display, family BBQ
Stage One. Wednesday 17th January 2018122.5kmMasterton – Alfredton - MastertonStage Two. Thursday, 18th January 2018120kmMasterton – Gladstone Circuit – Masterton
Stage Three. Friday, 19th January 2018136kmMasterton - Martinborough
Stage Four. Saturday, 20th January 2018147kmMasterton – Te Wharau – Admiral Hill
Huri Huri eventExplore Castlepoint Station by bike, 20th January 2018
Stage Five. Sunday, 21st January 2018120kmMasterton. Riders complete 12 laps of a 10km circuit.
| A Destination Wairarapa release || December 8, 2017 |||
Dec 8, 2017 - Rocket Lab plans to roll out the company’s second light-class Electron rocket to its launch pad in New Zealand on Thursday for final countdown preparations, but officials have delayed liftoff to no earlier than Friday night, U.S. time. The Electron booster, standing roughly 55 feet (17 meters) tall, could blast off from Rocket Lab’s commercial launch pad as soon as 0130 GMT Saturday (8:30 p.m. EST Friday) at the opening of a four-hour launch window. The launch opportunity opens at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab says it has a wider window to launch the rocket, with four hours each day through Dec. 17.
Liftoff with three commercial CubeSat payloads was planned as soon as Thursday night, U.S. time, but officials said they needed more time.
The company transported the Electron vehicle to its launch base last month, after completing full-up hotfire testing. The launch team rehearsed countdown procedures last week, and practiced loading kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the rocket.
“We did a hotfire campaign as a big preparatory test, so all that was done over a month ago,” said Shaun O’Donnell, Rocket Lab’s vice president of global operations. “The wet dress rehearsal went really well. It went really smooth, especially for our first run at it, so we’re really confident.”
Ground crews at the launch site on Mahia Peninsula, on the east coast of New Zealand’s southern island, planned to transfer the two-stage rocket from its assembly hangar to Launch Complex 1 overlooking the Pacific Ocean Thursday, U.S. time, a Rocket Lab spokesperson told Spaceflight Now.
The rocket will be raised vertically on its launch mount, and Rocket Lab officials will assess the launcher’s readiness and weather conditions before proceeding with the countdown Friday.
The Electron rocket’s second launch comes more than six months after Rocket Lab’s first orbital launch attempt, which ended prematurely May 25 when a ground tracking computer feeding data to the range safety team stopped receiving signals from the launcher around four minutes after liftoff.
The flight safety officer inside Rocket Lab’s launch control center followed established procedures and sent the command to shut down the Electron’s second stage engine after the data dropout.
Investigators traced the mishap’s cause to a software programming error in a tracking system provided by a third-party contractor, and Rocket Lab’s own ground systems — operating in a shadow mode on the maiden flight — did not suffer the same problem.
With a launch base, control center and factory in New Zealand, Rocket Lab also has a headquarters in Southern California, where it is outfitting a second rocket assembly plant. Eventually aiming to launch as often as once per week, the U.S.-New Zealand company operates under the regulatory umbrella of the FAA.
The FAA announced earlier this week it issued a commercial launch license for the Electron rocket’s second flight.The second Electron rocket is pictured on its side at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab
The May 25 test flight, dubbed “It’s a Test,” demonstrated good performance of the Electron rocket’s first stage, and the launcher’s second stage engine ignited and payload fairing jettisoned as designed before the mission was terminated.
The results raised hopes the second Electron launch, christened “Still Testing” by Rocket Lab, could successfully reach orbit. Engineers also minimized changes to the rocket, with the most significant upgrade in the second stage, which will debut stretched propellant tanks to accommodate more fuel, O’Donnell told Spaceflight Now.
“The performance we saw from the vehicle was really good,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday from Rocket Lab’s development facility in Auckland. “It was actually in the upper bounds of the performance we expected, so that was really positive.
“The vehicle this time around is slightly longer,” O’Donnell said. “That’s really just a tank stretch. It doesn’t relate to any changes with the engines or other functional parts of the vehicle. From the good data that we got from that first launch, we’re confident that the majority of those systems are fine, which was really reassuring.”
But the upcoming mission is still considered a demonstration, and Rocket Lab has a third Electron vehicle built that could launch in early 2018 on a third test flight — if necessary — before the company begins operational launches. Rocket Lab officials said commercial service could be accelerated to begin on the third Electron launch if the second flight goes well.
Rocket Lab said the weather outlook for Sunday does not look favorable, so the launch could slip to Monday (Sunday night in the United States) if officials order a further delay.
“Our weather limits are pretty generous for the vehicle,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. “We’ve got pretty decent ground level winds.
“One of our biggest issues is triboelectrification in the high clouds,” O’Donnell said, referring to the potentially dangerous build-up of static electricity on the rocket as it soars through high-level clouds. “It’s one of those things that could happen any time of year, and that can cause potential issues.”
A dedicated team will monitor real-time conditions during the countdown in case weather takes a negative turn.
Refined kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen will be loaded into both stages of the Electron rocket in the final hours of the countdown, and a final automated launch sequence will commence at T-minus 2 minutes to oversee the last steps before liftoff
The Electron’s nine Rutherford main engines, mounted in a circular web-like configuration at the base of the first stage, will ignite at T-minus 2 seconds.File photo of the Electron rocket’s nine Rutherford first stage main engines on a previous vehicle. Credit: Rocket Lab
The Rutherford main engines, developed in-house by Rocket Lab, will generate around 34,500 pounds of thrust at liftoff and power up to 41,500 pounds of thrust as the rocket climbs into the upper atmosphere. The Rutherford engines use electric turbopumps, an innovation in the launch industry that first flew on the Electron rocket.
The first stage engines are scheduled to shut down around two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, and the booster will release to fall into the Pacific Ocean four seconds later. Ignition of the second stage’s single Rutherford engine is slated for T+plus 2 minutes, 36 seconds.
Separation of the Electron’s nose shroud, which covers the three shoebox-sized CubeSats riding on the launch, is planned at T+plus 3 minutes, 4 seconds.
The second stage engine is programmed to fire more than five-and-a-half minutes until T+plus 8 minutes, 14 seconds. The second stage burn will be around 50 seconds longer than the firing planned on the Electron’s first test launch, thanks to enlarged propellant tanks that extend about a half-meter (1.6 feet) longer than the tanks on the inaugural flight, O’Donnell said.
“It just gives us more payload, essentially, thanks to a longer burn time,” O’Donnell said of the bigger second stage.
The three CubeSats — one from Planet and two from Spire Global — will release out of Rocket Lab’s Maxwell deployers at T+plus 8 minutes, 31 seconds.
Planet’s CubeSat, named “Dove Pioneer,” will join the company’s fleet of Earth-imaging satellites. Spire’s Lemur-2 CubeSats are used to track ship traffic and collect atmospheric measurements to aid weather forecasters.
Rocket Lab says it charges $4.9 million per Electron flight, significantly less than any other launch provider flying today, and offer a dedicated ride for payloads that currently must ride piggyback with a larger payload.
The company has a launch contract to place several CubeSats in orbit for NASA next year, along with future launch agreements with Planet, Moon Express and Spaceflight, which books launches of small satellites from various commercial and scientific customers.
With money from venture capital funds in Silicon Valley and New Zealand, along with a strategic investment from Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab completed the design and qualification of the Electron rocket with less than $100 million since the company was established in 2006, according to Peter Beck, the company’s CEO and founder.
Rocket Lab’s progress was marked with test launches of more than 80 sounding rockets since the company’s formation. If the second Electron mission reaches orbit, it will mark the first orbital launch from New Zealand.
“What we’re looking for (on the second launch) is just to close off that final few minutes that we didn’t see on the first flight, where we’re getting into orbit, we’re completing the burn of the second stage and we’re releasing some payloads, which would really be the cherry on top,” O’Donnell said.
“It is still a test,” he said. “We had originally planned for three test flights, so we’re fully prepared to run that third test as well if we don’t get everything we need from this one.”
| A Spaceflight Now release || December 8, 2017 |||
Dec 8, 2017 - Figures released today show that Kiwis lost over $1.1 million to cyber security issues in the third quarter of 2017. This brings the total financial loss to New Zealanders from cyber security issues reported to CERT NZ to over $1.9 million since April. CERT NZ’s latest quarterly report was released today and shows that security threats continue to impact New Zealanders and their businesses.
“CERT NZ was launched in April 2017 to take reports from all New Zealanders about how they have been affected by cyber security incidents, so we can help them recover,” says Rob Pope, Director CERT NZ. “The reports we received in the quarter to 30 September show that our relative geographic isolation is no barrier to being affected by these threats.”
“Between 1 July and 30 September, CERT NZ received 390 incident reports of which the vast majority, 297, were responded to by CERT NZ.”
In this reporting period, CERT NZ has seen an increase in targeted invoice scams affecting both individuals and businesses around New Zealand. “As we noted in our previous report, targeted attacks are on the rise. In this quarter we’re seen an increase in invoice scams impacting New Zealand businesses through a range of means.
“We’ve also seen a marked decrease in ransomware reports following the global ransomware attacks that we saw earlier this year, with these reports dropping by over 50%.”
Mr Pope encourages all New Zealanders affected by cyber security issues to report them to CERT NZ, “Our team is here to help people who have been affected by cyber security issues by giving them advice and assistance on how to avoid and overcome them. The more reports we receive, the more information we can share with New Zealanders to help them protect themselves”
If you or your organisation experiences a cyber security threat – or if you suspect you may have been exposed to one – contact CERT NZ any time or call 0800 CERT NZ, Monday to Friday, 7am – 7pm.
| A Beehive release - MBIE || December 8, 2017 |||
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