Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

The Guardian reports that New Zealand has the world’s most frenetic property market, with prices in Auckland now outstripping London, and possibly dashing the hopes of British buyers hoping to escape Brexit. In a global ranking of house price growth by estate agents Knight Frank, New Zealand was second to Turkey, but once the impact of inflation was stripped out it came top with 11% annual growth.

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The Engineer reports that a group proposing the UK’s first new university in 30 years believes it’s time for a revolution in the way we teach engineering.

The engineering skills problem isn’t going away. Despite the efforts of various outreach programmes, publicity campaigns and government initiatives, the number of businesses complaining about the quality and quantity of engineering graduates remains stubbornly high.

While the number of engineering students has grown in line with the wider take-up of higher education, the latest skills survey from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) found around 40 per cent of engineering firms struggle to recruit graduate engineers, with 54 per cent saying graduate skill levels did not meet reasonable expectations.

So is it time for a revolution in the way we teach engineering in the UK? A group proposing to build the UK’s first new university in 30 years believes so and plans to initiate just that. Called the New Model in Technology & Engineering (NMITE), the private university aims to create a supply of work-ready engineers to support local engineering firms in its planned home in Herefordshire from 2017.

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The country’s biggest plastic packaging manufacturer, Pact Group, has announced that it will acquire Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers for $90 million, continuing the company’s aggressive goal of building its revenues to $5 billion through acquisitions.

News.com.au reports that the price for APM, which serves the nutraceuticals market, was 6.5 times APM’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

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Comvita plans to acquire 51 percent of its Chinese distributor in a $30 million all-stock deal that will see the owners of Shenzhen Comvita Natural Food Co lift their holding in the New Zealand manuka honey products company to more than 11%

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Tianjin Airlines is a regional airline headquartered in Tianjin Binhai International Airport passenger terminal building, Dongli District, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.

Tianjin Airlines, which is Auckland's Chinese carrier, will launch the first Chinese flights from Auckland to Chongqing and Tianjin of China in December 2016. The flights will operate between Tianjin, Chongqing and Auckland three times a week using an A330 aircraft.

It will be the first Oceania route for Tianjin Airlines, which plans to use an A330 aircraft on the new routes to two of China's most important economic centers. In May 2016, Tianjin Airlines imported its first A330 aircraft, since then 9 international routes have been in operation, including Tianjin-Moscow and Tianjin-Chongqing-London, which showed the internationalization of Tianjin Airlines by leaps and bounds.

The launch will involve direct flights from China's fourth largest city, Tianjin to Chongqing, one of the world's largest urban centers and a major manufacturing and transportation hub in southwest China, and then fly to Auckland three times per week all year-round.

Chongqing is a major economic center of the Yangtze basin and has a population of more than 30 million. Chongqing has invested heavily in infrastructure and is very well connected to the rest of China. These infrastructure improvements have led to the arrival of numerous foreign direct investors in industries including car manufacture, finance and retailing.

With a population of more than 15 million, Tianjin is the largest coastal city in northern China and the major gateway port serving the capital Beijing. It is also home to a Special Economic Zone where key experimental economic reforms are taking place, and has become a hub of advanced industries and financial activities with 285 of Fortune 500 companies now having presence there.

The A330 selected by Tianjin Airlines is designed to carry 260 passengers with 18 business class seats and 242 economy class seats. Auckland Airport estimates that Tianjin Airlines' new service will add 83,000 seats for Auckland route every year and will provide a $102 million boost to the New Zealand tourism industry.

Norris Carter, Auckland Airport's general manager – aeronautical commercial, says the airport warmly welcomes Tianjin Airline's announcement. With more and more Chinese people travelling to New Zealand, attracted by its safety and unique scenery, "This is great news for Auckland Airport as well as for our city and the country."

"China is a rapidly developing source market for New Zealand tourism and this new route flying directly to Auckland provides another option for Chinese visitors to experience New Zealand," Carter said.

University of Otago Associate Prof Stephen Moratti has been granted $81,309 to develop new gel technology to achieve controlled drug release, including after surgery. His grant was one of 10, totalling $826,000, provided throughout the country as part of the Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge, and announced last week by Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce.

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Emirates’ Earlybird fares from New Zealand announced today include a host of Europe destinations - among them London from $1,959 return - across the network of 38 European cities that it flies to directly.

The Earlybird fares, for travel in 2017, include 17 points in Europe that will be accessible by A380 flights all the way from New Zealand, including one from Auckland with just one stop, in Dubai.

The list of return economy fares from Auckland and Christchurch includes popular destinations such as Amsterdam (from $1,889, all taxes included), Paris and Barcelona (from $1,939), Rome (from $1,969) and Frankfurt (from $1,979).

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Hilton has announced the opening of Chateau on the Park - Christchurch, a DoubleTree by Hilton.

Formerly Chateau on the Park, the property is adjacent to Hagley Park, within walking distance to Christchurch Botanic Gardens and the western business district, and a five-minute drive into the city.

The hotel will be the second DoubleTree by Hilton to enter New Zealand and joins four Hilton Worldwide hotels in Auckland, Taupo and Queenstown.

It has been fully refurbished and offers 192 guest rooms, a Den Bar, Garden Court Brasserie, and seven meeting spaces as well as a business centre, heated outdoor swimming pool and a fitness room.

Emirates A380s will fly between New Zealand and Dubai five times daily from 30 October with the introduction of the airline’s double-decker flagship aircraft on Christchurch services.

Emirates will be the first airline to offer regular scheduled A380 services to and from Christchurch with the upgrade of the current daily Christchurch service from Boeing 777-300ERs, along with the removal of the en-route stop in Bangkok which will enable passengers to travel all the way between Christchurch and Dubai, with just one stop in Sydney.

The launch of the Christchurch A380 flights will coincide with the introduction of the A380 on Emirates’ daily non-stop route between Auckland and Dubai. Emirates currently also operates three other daily A380 services between Auckland and Dubai and beyond via Australia (Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane).

Outbound, A380 flight EK413 will depart Christchurch at 18:45 hours, touching down in Dubai at 05:15 hours the next day after its stop in Sydney, reducing the journey time to Dubai and Europe by about two hours in each direction.

The return flight, EK412, will depart Dubai at 10:15 hours, stopping only in Sydney before arriving in Christchurch at 13:50 hours the next day (local time).

Meantime, the Auckland A380 service flying via Sydney (EK419) will operate via Bangkok, as well as Sydney. It will depart Auckland at 16:30 hours and arrive in Dubai the following morning at 06:45 hours. The return flight, EK418, will depart Dubai at 08:55 hours and arrive in Auckland at 15:55 hours the following day (local time).

The latest New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) Survey of Business Conditions completed during August 2016, shows total sales in July 2016 decreased 15.27% (year on year export sales decreased by 20.48% with domestic sales decreasing by 6.03%) on July 2015.

In the 3 months to July, export sales decreased an average of 6.5%, and domestic sales increased 2.6%.

The NZMEA survey sample this month covered NZ$337m in annualised sales, with an export content of 60%.

Net confidence fell to 6, down from 20 in June.

The current performance index (a combination of profitability and cash flow) is at 98.7, down from 99 last month, the change index (capacity utilisation, staff levels, orders and inventories) was at 100, up from 99 in the last survey, and the forecast index (investment, sales, profitability and staff) is at 107, up on the last result of 105.33. Anything over 100 indicates expansion.

Constraints reported were 75% markets, 12.5% production capacity and 12.5% capital.

There was no net reported productivity increases for July.

Staff numbers for July decreased 0.15% year on year.

Supervisors, tradespersons and, managers, professional/scientists and operators/labourers reported a moderate shortage.

“Year on year export sales have moved from their slight fall last month, to a more significant decrease of 20.48% in July. This result solidified the downward trend shown in the 3 month moving average of export sales, now sitting at -6.5%. Domestic sales also fell in year on year terms, though to a smaller extent than exports. Year on year domestic sales fell 6.03% in July, resulting in monthly average growth of 2.6% for domestic sales over the last 3 months.” Said Dieter Adam.

“There are clearly some challenges appearing in sales terms for manufacturers, particularly in export markets. The profitability measure gained ground in the latter half of 2015, but has since been trending downward. After moving somewhat lower during 2016, the market constraint has now moved to its highest level since December 2015. This may indicate, along with falling the profitability and export sales, that the pressure of the exchange rate is building on manufacturers – our currency has trending up this year, moved up 9 cents since late 2015 on the Trade Weighted Index. The exchange rate and increased competition from imports was noted as a concern by a number of respondents.

“Confidence fell in July, along with two of the index measures, profitability and change. However, in contrast, the forecast index increased again on last month, and remains high at 107. Within the forecast index, was a strong positive result for investment plans. Despite this month’s sales results, and lower confidence, there remains a relatively positive view for the future among manufacturers.” Said Dieter.

For results table and historical series, click here.