Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
15 Nov 2017 - IrrigationNZ says that the petition presented by Greenpeace at Parliament yesterday misrepresents how irrigation has been funded and used and ignores the wide range of benefits to New Zealand from irrigation, as well as the efforts being made to address environmental issues.
“Greenpeace has presented a petition seeking to stop government funding of irrigation schemes. The petition is misleading as the majority of money provided to irrigation schemes by Crown Irrigation Investments has been in the form of loans which have to be paid back with interest,” says Andrew Curtis IrrigationNZ Chief Executive.
“The loan funding supports new irrigation schemes but also supports work to modernise existing irrigation schemes so they can use water more efficiently, something many people would support if they knew about it.”
Mr Curtis says the petition’s focus on irrigation being used by dairy farms does not fairly represent how irrigation is used in New Zealand. Over half of New Zealand’s irrigated land is not used for dairy farming but to grow crops, for sheep and pasture grazing, and for fruit, vegetable and wine production. Most dairy farms in New Zealand do not use irrigation.
“Modern irrigation schemes can also have a range of environmental benefits,” says Mr Curtis.
Trials by the Foundation for Arable Research have found that arable farms with irrigation leached less nitrogen than the equivalent dryland farms. On irrigated farms nutrients can be targeted to provide reliable plant growth which is not limited by soil moisture. Enhanced plant growth allows more nutrients to be used by plants, reducing the risk of leaching. Irrigation also promotes consistent ground cover (either crops or pasture) through the summer growing season, which reduces the risk of wind erosion of soil and surface sediment runoff. Sediment is a significant contaminant in waterways.
Irrigation schemes can be designed to protect river health – for example water from the Opuha Dam is used to supplement river flows to keep the river flowing during drought years and is released to mimic ‘natural freshes’ that flush-out algal growth in the Opuha River.
“The recent report on domestic vegetable production by HortNZ highlights that New Zealand needs to focus on ensuring there is a secure food supply for the future. Irrigation helps us feed our growing population, keeps food more affordable and allows a wider variety of local food to be grown throughout the year,” Mr Curtis adds.
“Irrigation will become even more important in the future to help reduce food shortages or price spikes due to droughts occurring more often as a result of climate change.”
Many irrigation schemes supply multi-purpose infrastructure with Oamaru, Timaru and Kerikeri all sourcing their town drinking water supply from irrigation infrastructure.
“Irrigation is vitally important to New Zealand’s economy and it contributed an estimated $5.4 billion to NZ’s GDP in 2016-17. For every 1,000 hectares of irrigation added, several New Zealand studies have found at least 50 new jobs are created. For high value horticulture, this increases to over 500 new jobs,” Mr Curtis says.
“New Zealand is a world leader in efficient, safe food production and irrigation plays an important role in this as well as in creating prosperous communities. Farmers and growers are now taking a wide range of actions on farms like fencing off waterways, riparian planting and developing farm environment plans which are already resulting in improvements to rivers,” says Mr Curtis.
Notes on sources:
(1) For information on trials by the Foundation for Arable Research see Irrigation is good for the environment
(2) Information on the Opuha Dam is online
(3) For HortNZ’s report see New Zealand vegetable production: the growing story
(4) For details of the economic contribution of irrigation to GDP, how irrigated land in New Zealand is used refer to IrrigationNZ’s website
(5) For studies on the link between irrigation and job creation see the Socio-Economic Value of Irrigation
(6) For Canterbury rainfall data see Land, Air and Water NZ
14 Nov 2017 - Join CADPRO Systems Ltd & Global Survey technical specialist NEXT WEDNESDAY to see why the #BLK360
14 Nov 2017 - Portland’s year-long effort to attract regular liner services back to Oregon’s only container port took an important step forward Monday with the announcement that Swire Shipping will initiate a monthly service that will carry truck exports to Australia-New Zealand and containerized imports from Asia.
“It’s a first step, but a critical first step,” said Keith Leavitt, Portland’s chief commercial officer.” He added, “This is important to us because we have to demonstrate to the trans-Pacific that Portland is back to work.
In addition to its thriving breakbulk and bulk services, Portland for years was an important gateway for containerized exports from Oregon and western Idaho and imports of consumer merchandise, primarily from Asia. At its peak, Portland handled about 340,000 TEU a year.
Portland in 2012 began to experience labor problems when the International Longshore and Warehouse Union became engaged in a jurisdictional dispute with another union. That event escalated into a bitter, three-year confrontation between the ILWU and ICTSI, operator of Terminal 6 at the time. Productivity plunged as the ILWU engaged in work slowdowns that caused Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, and Westwood Shipping to end their liner services.
ILWU officials in Portland accused ICTSI, an international terminal operator based in the Philippines, of running Terminal 6 as a “third-world” operation. Bill Wyatt, the port’s executive director at the time, said the union was upset because when ICTSI took over operation of Terminal 6 in 2010, it began to pull back on wasteful and inefficient work practices that had been common for the many years that Portland managed the terminal as an operating port.
Leavitt said port managers the past year have had a number of meetings with the ILWU locals and they are confident that a return of shipping services will be greeted with improved productivity. “I feel like we’re in a good spot,” he said.
Swire Shipping, which is based in Singapore, will be in charge of handling containers at Terminal 6 when the service begins operating in January. Leavitt said Swire has no presence in Portland and may contract with a stevedore to discharge and load containers. The port will continue to contract with Harbor Industrial Services for the breakbulk stevedoring work. Port authority staff have been working with the ILWU to get the cranes and other cargo-handling equipment back into good working order, he said.
As a river port with draft limitations, Portland is unable to accommodate the mega-ships of 10,000-TEU capacity and greater that are common today at West Coast ports. Nevertheless, Portland is a good gateway for north-south services and niche carriers that do not operate mega-ships, Leavitt said. The base cargo for the new service will be trucks manufactured in Oregon by Daimler Trucks North America. Portland was once a profitable port for importers of containerized merchandise destined for importers in the region. Importers and exporters have been shipping most of their cargo the past two years through Seattle-Tacoma.
The new service will be triangular, carrying mostly non-containerized cargo and trucks from Portland to Australia and New Zealand. The vessels will steam to China and South Korea and will load containerized imports for Portland.
| A joc.com release || November 14, 2017 |||
14 Nov 2017 - Freightways Limited (NZSE:FRE), a air freight and logistics company based in New Zealand, saw its share price hover around a small range of NZ$7.43 to NZ$7.93 over the last few weeks. But is this actually reflective of the share value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy?
Let’s take a look at FRE’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.
Check out our latest analysis for Freightways
| A Simply Wall Street release || November 14, 2017 |||
14 Nov 2017 - Port Taranaki is withdrawing from the container sector, including closing its container transfer site. Port Taranaki chief executive Guy Roper said changes to the New Zealand supply chain had prompted the decision, particularly the introduction of larger international container vessels, the development of inland ports for the containerisation of products, and the increased use of rail transport linking regions to ports with international departures. With coastal shipping impacted by these changes, there was now reduced incentive for shipping lines to call at Port Taranaki.
“We have not had a full container service at Port Taranaki for three years – the last container ship to call was in October 2014,” Mr Roper said. “Since then we have worked hard with potential customers and shipping lines to make it viable to call at the port.
“However, container services rely on scale and throughput, and with the changes to the national supply chain, we have been unable to secure sufficient trade to attract shipping lines. As a result we will no longer seek to recommence a container shipping service.”
Mr Roper said the decision would result in the closure of the container transfer site.
“As a service to Taranaki companies, through an arrangement with shipping lines we have maintained a container transfer site, making containers available to local importers and exporters,” Mr Roper said. “However, with Port Taranaki’s decision to withdraw fully from the container sector, the container transfer site will close.”
Mr Roper said the port was in consultation with two staff who would potentially be affected by the closure of the container transfer operation.
The site is expected to close at the end of January. From 1 December the site will operate from 7am to 3pm weekdays.
In addition, Port Taranaki has closed the cold store on the Blyde Wharf, which stored chilled and frozen products for the dairy and poultry industries. The closure, which was effective from 1 November, resulted in the loss of one position at Port Taranaki.
“Because of the halt in container trade in the past three years, the cold store has been under-utilised, which is why we decided to close it,” Mr Roper said.
The decision to withdraw from the container business has been made following a strategic review of the container sector by the Port Taranaki Board.
Board chairman Peter Dryden said the changes occurring within the New Zealand supply chain and the need to operate a sustainable and successful business for the benefit of the Taranaki community, had brought about the review and subsequent decision.
“After examining our position in the container sector and what we believe are permanent changes to the New Zealand supply chain, investing in future capability to be competitive, such as machinery and systems, was not viable,” Mr Dryden said.
“Port Taranaki will now focus on growth in other areas of the business, such as our burgeoning log business, as well as concentrating on our core business of bulk liquids, bulk dry products and support of the offshore oil and gas sector,” he said.
Mr Dryden said the port would retain its mobile harbour cranes in support of other work, including Port Taranaki’s offshore business.
“We will be working with local logistics providers to ensure continuity for Taranaki importers and exporters,” he said.
| A Port Taranaki release || November 9, 2017 |||
14 Nov 2017 - Desktop Metal is a US based company committed to bringing metal 3D printing to engineers and manufacturers, today announced it will begin accepting international pre-orders of its metal 3D printing system, the Studio System™ from companies throughout Asia Pacific. The announcement comes as Desktop Metal is experiencing tremendous interest and demand from manufacturers and strategic partners around the globe.
“Our vision is to make our Desktop Metal 3D printing solutions accessible to engineers and manufacturers around the world,” said Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal. “We plan to begin offering our metal 3D printing technology internationally and will be accelerating production to meet worldwide demand first for our Studio System and later for our Production System. Our partnerships with best-in-class resellers in each of these geographies bring us closer to making metal 3D printing solutions available to all who want to realize the benefits of rapid prototyping and mass production of metal parts. We are excited to see what happens next in manufacturing as we welcome these new countries to our landscape.”
To support its international expansion plans, Desktop Metal has developed strategic partnerships with authorized Desktop Metal international resellers to immediately begin pre-selling its Studio System throughout APAC, including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Australia and New Zealand. To date, the company has partnered with 13 resellers throughout APAC to pre-sell and support its systems. Availability of the Studio System will vary by country. Interested buyers should visit www.desktopmetal.com/international for the complete list of APAC resellers and country-specific information.
About the Studio SystemThe Studio System, which debuted in May 2017, is the first office-friendly metal 3D printing system for rapid prototyping and is 10 times less expensive than existing technology today. The Studio System is a complete platform, including a printer, a debinder, and a sintering furnace that, together, deliver complex and even impossible geometries of metal 3D printed parts right in an engineer’s office or on the shop floor.
To manufacture metal 3D printed parts at scale, Desktop Metal also debuted the only 3D printing system for mass production of high resolution metal parts today, the Production System.
| A Desktop Metal release || November 14, 2017 |||
14 Nov 2017 - The mother of all produce sanitisation machines has arrived in Australia, fresh off the ship from Germany, as the country takes its food safety technology to the next level. Dubbed ‘The Food Safety Supercharger’, the custom-made 250-kilogram test-unit creates a stream of ‘supercharged air’ by applying an electric current to normal air. Using this disruptive technology, it has the capacity to kill microbial pathogens on the surface of fresh produce and nuts, without leaving any chemical residues.
Housed at a NSW Department of Primary Industries laboratory, this world-first machine aims to eliminate microbial contaminants such as Salmonella, Listeria and E.coli which cause foodborne illness outbreaks. Other spoilage-causing moulds can also be suppressed, offering a longer shelf-life and reduced food waste.
Hort Innovation fund manager Tim Archibald said the technology – which is part of a $5M jointly-funded project with the NSW Department of Primary Industries – has never been commercially used on food.
“The Food Safety Supercharger is here, and Australia is on track to introduce some of the most sophisticated sanitation technology in the world,” Mr Archibald said. “While there are good post-harvest practices already in place in Australia, when isolated contamination incidents occur, farmers are devastated.”
“This supercharged air technology has the exciting potential to limit product recalls, minimise trade disruptions and ensure consumers are confident about the produce they are buying. It also offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional food sanitisers.”
Lead researcher, Dr Sukhvinder Pal Singh, explained that supercharged air is plasma, which is the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid and gas.
“Natural plasma in the universe, such as the sun’s surface, has a temperature of thousands of degrees Celsius, while human-made, non-thermal plasma is only 30 to 40 degrees. That is why the technology can also be referred to as ‘cold plasma’,” he said.
Dr Singh presented the bold idea of applying cold plasma technology to fresh produce and nuts to Hort Innovation about a year ago.
“It was a transformative idea that presented a high reward for the horticulture industry if it worked,” he said. “Non-food sectors such as automotive, aerospace, textile, polymer, electronics and biomedical were already using the technology – particularly overseas, but it had never been applied to fresh produce.
“Once support was secured from Hort Innovation, which encourages disruptive technology, our team was able to start the research with the first-generation plasma unit. We then engaged a world-leading machine manufacturer in Germany to create a custom unit.”
Dr Singh said through their early testing, his team has determined that it is possible to kill bacteria and moulds in a short treatment time but there is a still a lot of research to come. He said now the latest generation of the machine is in the lab, the efficiency at which researchers can decontaminate produce is significantly higher than with their previous test unit, which was one-fifth the size.
He said after determining which fruit, vegetables and nuts are responsive to the treatment, the research team needs to ensure the killing of microbial pathogens does not compromise the quality and nutritional value of food.
“Ultimately, we would like to see this technology work and provide a pathway to commercialisation and for growers and packers to adopt it. Time will tell, but the early signs of this research are certainly promising.”
The research is due for completion in 2021. See a video of the technology in action.
| A Hort Innovation release || November 14, 2017 |||
14 Nov 2017 - Michael Molitch-Hou posted on engineering.com an article on HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printing technology. He writes that this technologythat has been one of the most exciting to watch, not just in terms of what it is capable of now, but what it portends for the future— a future that includes embedded electronics, augmented reality, ceramics and even metal. Laying out the road to that future, HP announced both the release of a new MJF printer, ahead of formnext, and, this past October, plans to embark on metal additive manufacturing (AM). Along with the new Jet Fusion 3D 4210 system, HP has also announced, as a part of its Open Materials Platform, an expanded materials portfolio and additional partners.
Jet Fusion 3D 4210
The newest MJF system, the Jet Fusion 3D 4210, is an upgrade to one of its flagship machines, the Jet Fusion 3D 4200. The 4200 was already an improvement upon the other flagship system, the 3200, in that it printed and cooled faster, and had lower material costs for serial production.
The 4210 takes these improvements further and, according to HP, “rais[es] the ‘break-even point’ for large-scale 3D manufacturing to up to 110,000 parts.” This means that producing up to 110,000 items on the system matches the costs of traditional mass manufacturing methods. Based on the company’s internal testing, parts can be mass produced at 65 percent of the cost of other AM technologies, such as fused deposition modeling and selective laser sintering (SLS).
Ramon Pastor, general manager of Multi Jet Fusion for HP’s 3D printing business, put this point in context, “HP’s Jet Fusion 3D systems have now reached a technological and economic inflection point that combines the speed, quality and scalability needed to accelerate manufacturing’s digital industrial revolution.”
The increased productivity is the result of hardware and firmware upgrades made to the existing Jet Fusion systems, which make it possible to perform continuous operation. This includes a new processing station for handling higher material volumes. Preorders for the machine, including upgrades for existing Jet Fusion customers, are available now.
New Materials
HP has a unique approach to its materials for MJF, allowing partners to develop proprietary materials on MJF systems to be sold through HP’s distribution network. As a part of the Open Materials Platform, it’s also possible to work with what the company dubs a Material Development Kit (MDK), which gives customers access to specific parts of the MJF process at various stages of printing, beginning with powder distribution.
Up to now, the materials were somewhat limited to a couple of varieties of black nylon powder. This material set has expanded with the latest news from HP, adding several materials that bring MJF closer in line with the technology’s number one competitor, SLS.
These materials include:
HP’s materials partners previously included Arkema, BASF, Evonik, Henkel, Lehmann & Voss, and Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Company. Along with news of the above materials, HP also added two more partners. Dressler Group will be giving the aforementioned chemical companies access to its toll grinding manufacturing capabilities to enable quicker material development. Berkshire Hathaway’s Lubrizol, a chemical company with thermoplastic polyurethane expertise, has also been added to the group and will be developing materials for final part production with MJF.
According to HP, over 50 chemical companies are “actively engaged” in the Open Materials Platform. The latest are Dow Chemical and DSM, who have purchased the MDK to develop powders for MJF. Evonik and Henkel have also purchased Jet Fusion printers themselves to develop powders for the platform.
HP Aims for Metal AM
At the HP Securities Analyst Meeting 2017 in Palo Alto in October, the company also announced that it was planning to enter the metal AM market, something I’d hypothesized since the launch of MJF at RAPID 2016.
President of 3D Printing at HP, Stephen Nigro, relayed at the event, “We have developed a novel 3D metal approach that is built to run a combination of high quality and improved economics [for] 3D-printed metals. Today’s 3D metal industry is focused primarily on specialized, high value, expensive applications. Our invention will transform the 3D metal into a more mainstream, high-volume production.”
The MJF platform had already been modified so that it could produce ceramic components, which likely involves binding the ceramic powder together before this completed green part is sintered in an oven. Metal, then, would require a similar approach, with the ceramic swapped out for metal.
This Metal Injection Molding-style technique has already been implemented with Desktop Metal’s technology, possibly putting the startup in direct competition with HP. We’ll know more next year when HP will officially announce the platform and its business plan for metal AM.
Also at the event, Nigro said that HP will be releasing its full-color MJF platform next year. This will give MJF a serious leg up on SLS, which requires either dying printed parts or printing in monocolor plastics. Combined with the productivity of MJF, full-color 3D printing will make it possible for the technology to compete with injection molding even further.
“MJF will be the one and only 3D printing technology in the industry that can make mechanical and robust functional full-color parts,” Nigro explained.“We plan to combine this color capability with a new, lower price position. The lower price position will open up new markets to HP, making it easier for designers and creators to access the technology. Being able to prototype with the same technology as full-scale production, which will change the end-to-end design process and accelerate the adoption of 3D printing.”
In an industry filled with hype, I’m reluctant to say that both of these announcements may have a profound impact on how the 3D printing industry evolves and may shake up the $12 trillion manufacturing industry, as HP claims it will.
| An engineering.com release || November 13, 2017 |||
13 Nov 2017 - Recent changes to the TPP agreement, now called CPTPP, appear to be a step forward, particularly with the potential removal of some of the more controversial parts, such as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses. Yet, we need to remind ourselves that the primary target of these FTAs is the reduction of tariffs, providing benefits to our primary commodity exporters, but little relief to our high value manufacturers, who frequently encounter obstacles to free trade in the form of non-tariff barriers.
“Non-tariff barriers are the ‘dirty little secrets’ rarely written into trade agreements, but a matter of daily practice far away from glamorous trade talks. And probably, just as harmful to local manufacturers is the almost complete lack of enforcement of product standards in our domestic markets, allowing imported goods to trade on a price advantage. Not to mention government procurement practices that in most cases pay lip service only to the principle of giving local manufacturers a fair chance, says Mr Dieter Adam, CE, The Manufacturers’ Network.
“The removal of some of the contentious parts of the previous agreement is a positive move from the Government, giving the eventual agreement broader support in New Zealand. However, we know from past experience that the really hard work starts once the agreement comes into force, in working to remove the non-tariff barriers that form the biggest challenges for high-value manufacturers making the most of the markets involved, says Mr Adam.
“Quality trade agreements are a vital component of improving our export competitiveness, especially when non-tariff barriers that effect manufacturers are properly addressed. We cannot ignore the fact, however, that in spite of a string of recent FTAs, such as the China and Korean FTAs, the share of exports in GDP has been dropping over the past decade, rather than growing by 25% - the goal the previous Government had set itself not long after coming into power in 2008. As the new Government is rightly pointing out, New Zealand’s future prosperity can only be secured by significantly growing our exports of high-value products and services. And one of the key preconditions for that lies in improving our productivity, which has lagged through successive governments. Improving productivity and thus increasing our ability to create high-value goods and services is where the new Government should focus.
“The other critical enabler to a more balanced approach to growth in our economy is a more favourable and fair exchange rate, especially against the Australian Dollar, given that Australia is a key market for our manufacturing exports. And in that context comments made by the Acting Governor of the RBNZ, Grant Spencer, at the November MPS press conference that “We’re happy with this [the current] level of our currency, it’s in the vicinity of fair value” are certainly not helpful and point to a change from recent RBNZ statements under Graeme Wheeler, setting around 60 cents as a target rate. It will be interesting to see the response of the new Government to this new assessment of ‘fair value’ by the RBNZ. Addressing our exchange rate, which has remained significantly above trends in the previous decade, need to be part of the discussion in the upcoming review and appointment of a new Governor, said Mr Adam.
| A The Manufacturiers Network release || November 13, 2017 |||
13 Nov 2017 - Steel prices have risen 14 per cent writes Anna Gibson for the NZHerald earlier today. Rising international prices have prompted Pacific Steel to increase costs to its New Zealand customers by 14 per cent. Stan Clark, Pacific Steel's sales and marketing manager, wrote to customers, telling them of the price hike.
"As an outcome of international steel price movements since the middle of the year, traded steel prices have increased here in New Zealand throughout that period. As a consequence, Pacific Steel has reviewed its prices and will be reflecting this market movement by increasing its prices by approximately 14 per cent commencing for orders placed for manufacture from the November production campaign," Clark wrote
Continue here to the full article published in the NZHerald || November 13, 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
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