Dec 21, 2017  -   The continual stream of reports discussing the future of the Port of Auckland continue to highlight the value of the port to the city and to the wider economy, says EMA’s CEO Kim Campbell.  "If anything, the current stream of reports show that we don’t need more reports," says Mr Campbell.

"What we need is a plan and that was outlined in the Port Future Study that was finally adopted by Council a couple of months ago.

"The Auckland Council’s continual asking for more reports because they don’t like the answer is not the solution; but it is a waste of money.

"For example, there have been two reports that found the right thing to do to accommodate the large cruise ships that we want in Auckland was the proposed dolphin structure with a fixed walkway.

"The first report was completed by the Port, but Council didn’t like the answer so commissioned an independent report from the Auckland Harbourmaster - same result and a waste of time and resources.  "Just build the thing.

"Now we’ve got the anti-port groups complaining that there are two different reports placing different values on the worth of the cruise ships to Auckland. It doesn’t matter. The reports use different methodology, so come up with different answers. But both reports show the gains for the city are significant."

Mr Campbell said another report obtained under the Official Information Act by Radio New Zealand (RNZ) , also highlighted the value of the car industry to the Auckland Port and the cost of shifting it elsewhere.

"Do we really want Auckland to give away some or all of the 10,000 jobs highlighted in the report? Does Tauranga or Northland want to, or have the money to invest almost $200 million to take over the trade? And why did RNZ have to resort to the OIA to get the report out of Council?"

Mr Campbell pointed to the Port of Auckland’s recently-released plan to guide its investment for the next 30 years as the answer.

"The Board and the management of the Port of Auckland accept that a move will occur in the next 20-30 years but until a suitable alternative is found, funded and consented the Port must continue to operate as a key component of Auckland and New Zealand’s import and export infrastructure.

"The Port has a plan to put most of the cars in a multi-storey car park fronted by a concept for an outstanding legacy building. It has a plan to add just 13 metres to an existing wharf to accommodate the general cargo issues it currently faces and when that’s combined with the proposed dolphin structure, the cruise ships are also managed.

"And while we are getting on with that, can the Council and the Government please just get on and agree the solution for the America’s Cup bases, before that boat sails out of the harbour," Mr Campbell says.

| An EMA release  || December 21, 2017   |||

Dec 21, 2017  - Taranaki engineering specialist Carac Group has beaten hundreds of other New Zealand companies to secure the Buy NZ Made Ultimate Hero Award for 2017 – confirming it as one of the most innovative and successful New Zealand Made companies in the country.

Each month over the past year, the Buy NZ Made Campaign has awarded monthly Hero status to 12 companies who have not only succeeded in doing a fantastic job promoting their NZ Made status but who have also excelled in other key commercial areas such as sustainability, employee satisfaction, innovation, domestic and international growth and diversification into new markets. All have stood out as outstanding New Zealand companies and represent the best of New Zealand Made business.

The 12 companies were voted on by the public over the month of November, with Carac Group securing the outright victory with remarkable results in taking its Kiwi-designed and engineered products to new markets all over the world, as well as domestically. Its innovative approach in designing ground-breaking trailer and towing products amongst other things was matched by an impressive ability to identify, define and exploit potential markets globally - something it has been doing with repeated success for the past three decades.

Of particular note was the remarkable story of its TrackGrip traction enhancer for vehicles which is now blazing a trail in the USA, Canada, UK and Australia as well as New Zealand and has massive further future potential.

“I am absolutely elated. We are so excited and I just didn’t believe it when we received the phone call," explained founder John Burling. "We have always been very proud of our NZ Made status and tell the world we are 100% Kiwi at every opportunity we can. It's especially rewarding to be recognised for our innovation, which we have always believed is a key ingredient for making any Kiwi company successful on the world stage."

As the Ultimate Hero, Carac will receive a trophy and certificate, artwork displaying their Ultimate Hero status and an advertorial in a magazine of their choice (from a selection of approved magazines) that includes information about their award, Buy NZ Made and other content of their choice.

Buy NZ Made announced 12 monthly winners during the past 12 months and will continue the initiative as a way to highlight and reward great New Zealand Made companies.

| A NZMade release  ||  December 21, 2017   |||

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Dec 21, 2017  -  The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast for the December 2017 quarter shows strength in many parts of the economy although with some risk from business sentiment and future wage pressures.

The manufacturing and services sectors are performing strongly and consumer confidence is high, BusinessNZ Chief Executive Kirk Hope said.  "Business confidence took a recent hit, although it has recovered somewhat since the election."Key indicators such as net debt levels are forecast to remain at relatively low levels by international standards.

"On the international scene a general recovery is underway, with accelerating growth in Europe, Japan, China and the US.

"Here at home a healthy GDP growth rate of around 3 per cent is forecast out to December 2019. "In a context of relatively strong economic growth, there are however risks relating to business uncertainty around future wage pressures and proposals for agricultural emissions and water charges."

The BusinessNZ Economic Conditions Index sits at 3 for the December 2017 quarter, up down 1 on the last quarter and down 11 on a year ago.

The Economic Conditions Index tracks 33 economic indicators including GDP, export volumes, commodity prices, inflation, debt and business and consumer confidence.

The BusinessNZ Planning Forecast for the December 2017 quarter is here on www.businessnz.org.nz.

Dec 21, 2017  -   The Reserve Bank today registered China Construction Bank Corporation to provide banking services in New Zealand. China Construction Bank Corporation is incorporated in the People’s Republic of China and will operate in New Zealand as a branch. A New Zealand subsidiary of the China Construction Bank Corporation has been registered to provide banking services in New Zealand since July 2014. There are now 25 registered banks in New Zealand. More information: Register of banks.

| A RBNZ release  ||  December 21, 2017   |||

Dec 21, 2017  -  By AAP | 21.12.2017 08:05 AM | ANZ has had the sale of its New-Zealand finance business UDC Finance to Chinese logistics company HNA Group blocked by a regulatory body. The lender says New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office had declined HNA's application to buy the business for $NZ660 million ($A626 million), and unless HNA can get the decision overturned the sale will not proceed.

ANZ will assess its options for the UDC business but says there is no urgency given the strength of the lender's current capital position following the recent sale of its life insurance arm.

Dec 20, 2017  -  New Zealand’s trade relationship with India has been strong and growing rapidly. As at Year ended June 2017, India was the Seventh largest export destination and 11th largest import source for New Zealand’s total exports and imports of goods and services respectively.

India was the fifth largest destination for New Zealand’s commercial services exports after China, Australia, EU and US, and the Ninth largest import source for its commercial services imports.

Table 1 suggests that, as at year-end June 2017, India was New Zealand’s 11th largest trading partner based on total trade in goods and services, with a two-way total trade valued at $ 2.6 billion, out of which exports were worth $ 1.7 billion.

The Export Sector

New Zealand’s exports to India have been heavily concentrated in a few product categories. The top five goods exported from New Zealand to India as at Year-end June 2017 constituted 78.5% of New Zealand’s total exports to India.

The top commodity item of exports was Logs and Forestry products ($271 million), followed by Confidential items ($154 million), Wood Pulp ($45 million), Wool ($39 million), and Edible Fruit and Nuts ($34 million) (Table 2).

In terms of change in value of exports to India as at year-end March 2016, the largest increases were noted in Confidential Items (up by $70 million from a year ago); followed by Wood Pulp (up by $12 million) and Logs and Sugar & Sugar confectionery (both up by $2 million).

The largest decreases in export values during this period were noted in exports of Machinery Equipment and parts (down by $15 million), followed by Dairy Produce (down by $11 million compared to a year ago) and Metal Scraps including Iron and Steel ingots (down by $ 9 million).

Continue here to read the full article on Indian Newslink  ||  December 17, 2017   |||

Dec 20, 2017  - Justice Robert Dobson and Professor Martin Richardson drew a line between online content aggregators and distributors such as Facebook and Google and news organisations Fairfax New Zealand and NZME in rejecting the publishers' appeal to merge.

Among Justice Dobson and Professor Richardson's findings in the 100-page High Court judgment, they backed the Commerce Commission's decision to turn down a proposed merger of NZME and Fairfax NZ, which was touted as the only way the country's dominant newspaper publishers could stand up to the likes of Facebook and Google eating into their online advertising revenue. The publishers claimed the online giants would remain a significant competitive constraint on a merged business, something the commission didn't believe in its decision to reject the transaction and that view was upheld in the High Court in Wellington.

The judge and professor said the commission's approach distinguishing a difference between producers of news, and collators and redistributors was relevant and that the regulator was right to exclude the likes of Facebook and Google in assessing the competitiveness of online national news production, which were unlikely to be a "meaningful constraint" on the merged publisher.

"Observed patterns of behaviour suggest that readers are likely to assess content from sites operated both by producers and by collators," the judgment said. "In seeking out reliable original news, visitors to collators' sites are likely to discriminate in their level of attention, placing greater credence and therefore spending more time on items from reputable producers of news."

Justice Dobson accepted the collators and distributors helped promote plurality of voices by inviting readers to access a wide range of news sources, however a distinction between production and distribution was still necessary, because "fifteen recyclers of the product of two producers of news are still only making two views available".

The publishers talked up the constraint caused by Google and Facebook, pointing to the two-sided market of competing for an audience as well as vying for advertiser dollars. Traditional publishers have struggled to respond to Google and Facebook hoovering up online advertising having devalued their print operations by freely distributing their content online.

While the online threat was front and centre of the firms' application, online ad sales only account for a fraction of the publishers' combined revenue which is still largely derived from traditional print advertising.

Among the regulator's concerns in rejecting the merger was the prospect of the dominant publisher introducing a subscription model to access a news website, better known as a paywall. NZME and Fairfax rejected that analysis, saying a merged entity would probably not introduce a paywall because of the unprofitable experience internationally. While Justice Dobson and Professor Richardson didn't accept that approach, saying the local environment was different, they did see the failure of paywalls internationally as compelling.

"We take a different view from the commission and cannot rate the prospect of a paywall being introduced as a sufficient likelihood to take it into account as conduct the appellants would likely undertake as a result of an SLC (substantially lessening competition) in the online reader market," they said.

| Source: ShareChat  ||  December 20, 2017   |||

Dec 20,  2017  -  Synlait Milk (NZX: SML; ASX: SM1) is partnering with Foodstuffs South Island Limited to become the Cooperative’s exclusive supplier of its private label fresh milk and cream from early 2019.

Synlait intends to invest approximately $125 million in an advanced liquid dairy packaging facility to supply Foodstuffs South Island.

The investment establishes a platform for Synlait to pursue a range of dairy-based products for domestic and export markets in the future.

“Combined, the partnership with Foodstuffs South Island and investment in a new facility is a further and significant step towards our goal of being a more diversified and balanced business,” says John Penno, Managing Director and CEO.

“We believe this opens up a new category - everyday dairy - and has the potential to both leverage our current position and explore new customers and markets.”

“This category represents the dairy products people consume every day. Our long-term success in this category will be based on our ability to win customers in the New Zealand market first and today we’re taking a foundational step towards that.”

Synlait’s partnership with Foodstuffs South Island is strategic for both parties.

“We are very proud of our Canterbury dairy farmers and the way they farm. We are excited about making our farmers’ fresh milk available to everyone in the South Island, in partnership with Foodstuffs,” says Mr Penno.

Fresh milk and cream from Synlait will be packaged in Value and Pams branded products, which are available across New World, PAK'nSAVE, Four Square and On The Spot stores.

“The partnership allows the Cooperative to provide high quality fresh milk and cream to our customers. The partnership allows us to give our customers surety around milk supply with an innovative New Zealand-based milk supplier,” says Steve Anderson, CEO Foodstuffs South Island.

“In time, we are looking forward to collaborating with Synlait to create a range of new and innovative dairy-based products that our customers will enjoy.”

Synlait’s research and development centre in Palmerston North, which is a collaboration with Massey University and FoodPilot, will provide the technical new product development expertise needed to establish, validate and deliver these capabilities at Synlait.

The expected $125 million investment in an advanced liquid dairy packaging facility is aimed at delivering a state-of-the-art liquid blending and packaging platform. It will allow Synlait to produce fresh milk and cream for domestic use and the ability to pursue a range of dairy-based extended and long-life consumer products in future.

“This will be one of the most sophisticated fresh milk and cream processing facilities in New Zealand.”

“By leveraging what we have learnt about milk quality and blending dairy products in our infant formula business, we will deliver a great facility at Synlait Dunsandel,” says Mr Penno.

“Our everyday dairy category offers many B2B and B2C opportunities in the established and growing export milk and cream market.”

With a minimum annual capacity of 110 million litres, the facility will be capable of producing:

• High-specification pasteurised milk and cream for domestic use

• Extended shelf life (ESL) dairy products

• Long-life milk and cream for export

• Ready to drink (RTD) liquid infant formula and toddlers milks

• Other blended dairy-based beverage products

Mr Penno says Synlait has proven experience from establishing and rapidly growing a successful infant formula business.

“We’ve demonstrated that we can introduce new capability, manufacture world-class product, build a profitable business around it and provide a long-term strategy for sustainable returns. This will be no different.”

| A Synlait release  ||  December 20, 2017  |||

Dec 20, 2017  -  Victoria University of Wellington geologist Dr Rob Mckay is leading an international expedition to Antarctic waters in January to discover how warming oceans will affect the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and what that could mean for rising sea levels, global weather systems and marine life. An associate professor at Victoria’s Antarctic Research Centre, Dr McKay will head a 30-strong team of scientists from the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) on the JOIDES Resolution, a 140m long scientific research ship operated by the IODP. “We plan to spend nine and a half weeks down in the outer Ross Sea to drill six geological drill sites—each of which could be up to a kilometre below the sea floor,” says Dr McKay. “We want to understand how the ocean and the ice sheets interact. So what happens when you put warm water next to the ice sheets? Do they melt? If so, how quickly do they melt? And what’s the impact of that melt on the oceans?” By drilling down so deeply into the sea floor, the team will be able to get a glimpse into the past—up to 20 million years ago—and “greenhouse worlds” that contained the same level of carbon dioxide currently in our atmosphere. "Using these geological records to see what the planetary response was to the current carbon dioxide levels means we can better understand what the scale of change could be for us, and what the earth is capable of in a warmer world,” says Dr Mckay. “Antarctica today acts as a giant heat-sink that keeps the planet cold. If you change that, you’re changing a major part of the global climate system. We’re trying to understand what happened the last time that was changed.” If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt—as it has in the past—Dr McKay says the global sea level would rise about 3 metres. The impact from the collapse of the Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet would be even more dramatic, as it contains enough ice to cause an estimated 20-metre rise in sea levels. “The consequences of that for coastal living, globally, are obvious, but we’re also trying to understand the implications for the biosphere in the Southern Ocean. This is one of the largest biological habitats on the planet and we don’t know how it will respond to these changes,” says Dr McKay. An important difference between then and now is also the fact that the increase in carbon dioxide levels that took many thousands of years to occur as part of natural cycles, has happened in just a couple of centuries due to human emissions and is continuing. No stranger to the coldest, driest, windiest continent on earth, Dr McKay travelled to Antarctica when he was just 20 years old for his first-ever overseas trip—which he describes as a “complete sensory overload”. Two decades later, and the five years he has spent planning the current expedition are about to pay off, as he will follow in the footsteps of a number of pioneering Victoria University researchers. “One of the reasons I was invited to be the co-chief scientist on this expedition is that we have a very strong link with records of previous drillings, led by Victoria,” says Dr McKay. “It’s been almost 50 years since the first drilling in Antarctica, which was carried out by scientists that included Victoria University Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett—former director of the Antarctic Research Centre. He revolutionised the way we view Antarctica, in terms of its geological record, and really pioneered core sample drilling on the continent.” “He developed a record that is absolutely fundamental to interpreting Antarctica’s role in global climate change.” After a hiatus of almost eight years, Dr McKay is looking forward to returning to Antarctica and drawing on this wealth of existing research to gather material that is “likely to inform global research for many years to come”. Dr McKay will be joined by two other New Zealanders on the expedition: Giuseppe Cortese, a microfossil expert from GNS Science who will be exploring how plankton communities will be affected by global warming, and Western Springs College teacher Rosa Hughes-Currie. Ms Hughes-Currie will be the first New Zealand high school teacher to take part in an IODP expedition.

| A Victoria University release  ||  December 20,  2017   |||

Dec 20, 2017  - Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd said on Monday it had signed a contract for Leighs Construction Ltd to construct the fourth building on its 42ha Auckland campus at Maurice Paykel Place, East Tamaki.

The new building will have a gross floor area of 35,700m² and consist of a mix of research & development, pilot manufacturing and warehousing areas. Groundworks have been substantially completed and construction will start in late January, with an expected operational date of 2020.

2300 employees – over half Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s global workforce of 4100 – work at the campus’s existing 3 buildings. Supply chain, environment & facilities general manager Jonti Rhodes said the new building would accommodate expected growth until about 2023.

“The blend of R&D, manufacturing & warehousing that we have in our existing buildings gives us a very open working environment and helps us work collaboratively across functional groups. It’s a unique, modern way of working that we are looking forward to developing further in the new building,” he said.

The company has also started a building programme in Tijuana, Mexico, where construction of a second manufacturing facility is underway with an anticipated completion date of late 2018. The company has 950 employees in Tijuana, where it’s been manufacturing in a leased facility since 2010.

The total cost of the building projects in New Zealand & Mexico is expected to be about $200 million.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare designs, manufactures & markets products & systems for use in respiratory care, acute care, surgery & the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. The company’s products are sold in over 120 countries.

| The BDR report   || december 20, 2017    |||