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By Doug Green  This year’s Mystery Creek Fieldays have come and gone and are said to have been  successful. And, of course, some really great innovations were on show. None more so than Waikato Milking Systems who took out the International Innovation Award with its Centrus 84 Rotary Platform at Fieldays 2015. In conjunction with the Centrus 84 Rotary Platform comes a new innovation in pivot rollers, made to manage the endurance roller in 24/7 dairy operations. The Centrus 84 Rotary Platform has already been sold into the US, China and South African markets. It also has a global patent making it an exclusive product to Waikato Milking Systems. The Centrus 84 is the first fully-composite rotary platform and is 80% lighter than previous platforms and five times stronger. And it is cutting-edge technology. A highlight of the show was the availability of a free app – STORY – that allowed Fieldays visitors to follow the Innovation Trail and learn more about the fascinating history of New Zealand’s agriculture through the Victorian-era buildings and historic objects in Mystery Creek’s Heritage Village. It was unfortunate – or just bad timing – that Fonterra announced it’s restructuring during the fieldays. An incredibly mistimed focus on their future which had people at the fieldays in earnest discussion. Fonterra is a huge player in the NZ economy and they need to smartly refine their future plans and get on with bigger and better business. Good news for regional development is the announcement that Scanpower’s Oringi business park at Dannevirke has signed a six-year contract with Intrepid Semiconductor for the lease of the former freezing works boning room as a base its diffusion plant – part of its enormous semi-conductor empire. The parent company is Trion. In 50 years, the semi-conductor business revenue has grown to […]

HERA is seeking nominations for the HERA Industry Awards to be presented at the Industry Awards Gala Dinner in the Rendezvous Hotel Ballroom, Thurdays 3rd September, as part of the Metals Week event celebrating the metals industry organised by Metals NZ. Every HERA member has a real chance to pick up one of these prestigious awards. The HERA Awards will be presented alongside awards from other Metals New Zealand partners: SCNZ, NZSSDA, NASH, MRM, CTNZ, TiTENZ (formerly TiDA) and GANZ. The Awards are peer-based and therefore, we need your assistance to identify those individuals and engineering companies who have excelled in the following three categories: 1. Keith Smith Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to the Metals Industry. 2. NZ Metals Engineering Exporter of the Year. 3. Most Innovative NZ Metals Engineering Company Finalists will be entitled to two free tickets to the Industry Awards Gala Dinner and the winner of each award will be reimbursed for their travel and accommodation expenses. Additional bookings will have to be made through the Metals Week registration web site. For more information about the HERA awards, visit the HERA Industry Awards page in About Us. The nomination form is downloadable from HERE. Nominations should reach HERA before 15th July 2015.

The Industry Training Federation (ITF) is marking the announcement that John Blakey, Chief Executive of Competenz, will step down as CEO at the end of the year. “John has made an outstanding contribution to industry training and vocational education over the last 30 years” ITF Chief Executive Josh Williams says. As well as leading Industry Training Organisations, John is a former Tertiary Education Commissioner and Industry Training Federation Chair. John is currently a member of the reference group for Labour’s Future of Work Commission, discussing the skills and training required for New Zealand’s future workforce. “John has been an unwavering champion for vocational education and training, and a system that genuinely connects learning and work.” Josh says. “John has provided invaluable guidance and leadership to our sector over many years, and we are pleased that John will remain involved in the sector as a Competenz Board member. “We wish John well for the remainder of his tenure, and also congratulate CEO designate Fiona Kingsford on her appointment.” Josh says.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) cut the OCR today to 3.25%, reflecting low inflation, weakening demand, low commodity prices and a high exchange rate. This is welcome news for manufacturers and exporters, as it will help to bring New Zealand’s settings closer in line with that of our competitors, say the New Zealand Manufcturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA). NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “We are pleased to see the RBNZ take action and cut the OCR. Manufacturers and exporters have been working hard to compete in trying conditions for some time and today’s cut will be appreciated. New Zealand’s interest rates have been an outlier compared to the rest of the advanced world for some time, and weakening conditions, low inflation and our overvalued currency justify the RBNZ’s move. “The RBNZ continue to describe our currency as overvalued, which has been hitting exporters and import competing manufacturers’ competitiveness – this OCR reduction will help to bring our currency back in line and continue its downward trend. We would encourage the RBNZ to cut again in July if current conditions persist. “Risks in our economy still remain, particularly around the Auckland housing market and lower commodity prices. More action may be needed to ensure house price inflation does not increase in response to lower interest rates. ‘The cut will help commodity exporters through lower borrowing costs and currency – but continued low commodity prices highlights the need for our economy to become more diverse, both in the products we make and the markets we sell them, focusing on adding value and making the most of the resources and skills we have – a strong manufacturing sector can play a leading role in achieving this and has the potential to contribute much more to our economy.”

In the picture: FoodWaikato plant manager Dave Shute gives Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce a tour through the plant. Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce today opened the $5m expansion of Waikato Innovation Park’s FoodWaikato plant. The expansion is expected to inject an extra $38.5m per year in export revenue back into the New Zealand economy from the sale of new, value-added consumer products directly produced there. The first stage of the plant, a spray dryer facility, was opened in May 2012 and was funded by Innovation Waikato Ltd. and a Government grant of $3.95m and cost $12.8m to complete. The second stage was largely funded by a $3m equity injection from Callaghan Innovation and allows specialty ingredients such as vitamins, minerals and oils to be wet blended with milk or fruit juice prior to being spray dried in the facility. “The functional and regulatory constraint of the plant as it was, meant we were limited to processing liquids in the form they arrived in at the site, which created significant challenges for many of the target firms FoodWaikato was created to assist,” said Waikato Innovation Park chief executive Stuart Gordon. “Higher value products like infant formula and aged care formula tend to involve mixtures of ingredients, but mixing offsite and transporting to FoodWaikato created regulatory, product integrity and processing challenges. “So we have added ‘wetside’ processing capability that now allows the mixing process to be done onsite, meaning FoodWaikato can now provide a greater level of development and innovation capability to dairy companies – cow, goat and sheep – as well as fruit and vegetable producers. “We’re moving from helping our customers manufacture ingredients that sell for around US$4700 per tonne to US$25,000 per tonne.  At full capacity, we will produce around 2500 tonnes of new, value-added products each year” demand […]

The latest New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) Survey of Business Conditions completed during May 2015, shows total sales in April 2015 increased 14.08% (year on year export sales increased by 17.06% with domestic sales increasing 8.10%) on April 2014. The NZMEA survey sample this month covered NZ$358m in annualised sales, with an export content of 69%. Net confidence rose to 17, up from -5 in March. The current performance index (a combination of profitability and cash flow) is at 100.3, up from 94.3 last month, the change index (capacity utilisation, staff levels, orders and inventories) was at 98, down from 100 in the last survey, and the forecast index (investment, sales, profitability and staff) is at 105.67, up on the last result of 100.83.  Anything over 100 indicates expansion. Constraints reported were 83% markets, 11% production capacity and 6% skilled staff. Net 22% of firms reported a modest rise in productivity in April. Staff numbers for April increased 3.36% year on year. Tradespersons, supervisors, managers, professional/scientists and operators/labourers all reported a moderate shortage. “In April, domestic sales continued on their recent trend of growth, experiencing year on year improvements.  Export sales also stayed in expansion for the second month.  However growth of turnover was at a lower rate than March for both domestic and export sales.” says NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam. “This month’s survey saw some more positive signs looking forward, as confidence improved for a second month, moving back into positive territory after two months in the negative, along with the forecast index seeing improvement, suggesting manufacturers and exporters are feeling more positive for the future than they have in recent months.  Staff numbers also felt another increase in April. “However risks and pressures remain, the low payout in the dairy sector is starting to feed […]