A timber industry reeling from the liquidation of Rotorua-based sawmill Tachikawa Forest Products faces the possibility that a Government tender will lead to thousands of Chinese-built, pre-fabricated, steelframed houses flooding the Auckland market. Sources: Stuff.co.nz, Fairfax NZ Media
Red Stag Timber group chief executive Marty Verry fears the industry could be “sidestepped” by the Government, which may grant a tender for the overseas construction of “2100 two-bedroom Housing Corp properties”.
“I know one major company is looking offshore to China to bring those in already fabricated with components and modules ready to bolt together in steel framing.”
The prospect of the Government making a “rash decision” to import thousands of steel-framed pre-fab houses and “plonk them on land in Auckland” posed a threat to the local timber industry and the overall economy, Verry said.
“New Zealand business is . . . gearing up on a big scale to provide Auckland with those houses.
“That is the main issue in the industry at the moment, making sure we as an industry can supply them instead of, for political reasons, the Government . . . ordering them in from offshore.”
National Association of Steel-Framed Housing general manager Carl Davies said he had not heard anything about steel-framed, Chinese-made pre-fab houses coming into New Zealand.
“I’m sure we would have been consulted about it,” he said.
First Union general secretary Robert Reid would be “absolutely horrified” if the Government tender allowed such a move.
“We’ve got this crazy procurement process at the moment which takes no account of the economic development of New Zealand. Something like that could be easily manufactured by the Tachikawa plant with a new owner, or by a number of other wood sites who would love the work.”
The possibility of overseas-built Housing Corp homes was raised after Tachikawa was placed in receivership, with 120 workers facing redundancy.
Reid said staff were told they would get full pay for last week but that was the last pay the receivers had funds for at this stage.
Under the Companies Act, staff are deemed to be preferential creditors entitled to a maximum of $20,040 in wages, holiday pay and redundancy. Without a buyer that sum could be reduced to as little as 50 cents in the dollar, Reid said.
“The receivers are working on a package to sell the business but, even doing that very quickly, there is still a four- to eight-week period,” he said. “Even then you don’t know if someone is going to buy it as a going concern or for the land and buildings.”
Timber Industry Federation chief executive Brent Coffey said it was “a shame” that Tachikawa had gone into receivership.
“We saw over a period of five years a few mills shutting their doors . . . it looked like everyone who was still around had got through the tough times.”
Coffey said those in the timber industry faced common issues.
“The price they are getting for logs in Asia and China in particular means it makes sense for them to be sending them over there. For us to get them means we have to pay what they’re paying.”
Statistics New Zealand figures show that, in the year to March 2013, New Zealand exported just over 2.6 million cubic metres of logs to China, nearly 1 million cubic metres more than the previous year. South Korea, at 611,252cum, was the next biggest market.
