Auckland building product manufacturers to get lockdown exemption

Government to enable Auckland building material manufacturers to resume work in lockdown to ease supply pressures

Property

Government to enable Auckland building material manufacturers to resume work in lockdown to ease supply pressures

7th Sep 21, 2:58pm by Jenée Tibshraeny

The Government is exempting some building product manufacturers from Auckland’s Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

It plans to change the Health Order within the next 48 hours to allow plasterboard, gypsum plaster, coated roofing steel and insulation to be manufactured under Level 4.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said he didn’t want Auckland’s restrictions to hold-up the manufacture of products, and thus residential construction work nationwide.

He noted building products manufactured domestically are mostly manufactured in Auckland.

A criterion has been created to determine which manufacturers can receive the exemption.

Minister for Building and Construction Poto Williams said the supply of products needs to be limited, and products need to be critical to residential construction for a company to receive an exemption.

Manufacturers must also have health and safety measures in place to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19. IE They should have minimal staff onsite.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment will manage the exemption process.

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13 Comments

by Uncle Bulgaria | 7th Sep 21, 3:15pm 1630984559

The power of RNZ pointing out this problem for the last 2 days .

by CWBW | 7th Sep 21, 3:38pm 1630985908

I don't think this will have an impact on relieving bottle necks.

There's more than building supplies just to build a house.

by HouseMouse | 7th Sep 21, 3:42pm 1630986174

Why the exception for this? It's hardly 'life and death'.

And don't tell me because we have a housing crisis. There's plenty of other things the government should have done to address that.

by Chinaman1 | 7th Sep 21, 4:51pm 1630990292

Because the social issues caused by a housing crises are more severe then a few 80+ yo having a slightly shorter retirement period.

by Flying high | 7th Sep 21, 5:50pm 1630993835

"It plans to change the Health Order within the next 48 hours to allow plasterboard, gypsum plaster, coated roofing steel and insulation to be manufactured under Level 4."

Are they planning to extend the L4 Lockdown?? Must be because if not then why bother making this change if they cant do it right now. 48hours, 2 days to do a simple change like this! It will be virtually Friday and just in time for the weekend. Then on Monday they will have a pow-wow and inform all the aucklanders whether the L4 lockdown will end Tuesday. And if JA extends it there will be an Auckland mutiny with some hate speech for JA thrown in when they keep seeing the rest of the country in L2 eating Kfc and going to shops

by waymad | 7th Sep 21, 6:39pm 1630996790

Usual lack of business experience and actual Planning by the Giant Brains here.

Sigh...

by p0s31d0n | 7th Sep 21, 9:50pm 1631008243

Curious to see which manufacturers are getting exemptions. Most likely the big boys with political connections :/

by Tigadee | 9th Sep 21, 10:17am 1631139456

And with deep pockets...

by Zack Brando | 8th Sep 21, 3:41am 1631029309

All companies are treated equal, but some are treated more equal than others.

by solardb | 8th Sep 21, 4:13pm 1631074431

This seems a good move to me , and actually a model for coming out of lockdown 4. Rather than blanket opening , open companies / shops with a isolation plan that ,means there is very little person to person contact.

by gnx | 8th Sep 21, 8:53pm 1631091185

When you study supply chain dynamics they have great examples of how really badly they can get stuffed up and this is looking very much like one of those situations.

Just imagine we have about five hundred merchants.....placemakers,mitre 10s, bunnings, itm's, carters and independents

And each doesn't want to lose sales so it orders a few extra pinks batts for stock, a few extra pallets of particle board ,a few extra packets of mouldings....

And their customers order a few extra packets of stock....

And you only have a few serious suppliers of each and you cant substitute one brand for another without changing consents and making variations approved by the council....

And new plants take years to establish...

I can see the industry getting a spanking if its not very careful here...and boy it deserves it.One big f**king cartel...I worked in it for twenty five years.

And the builders will cry and scream and throw tantrums...and the store owners too....and they won't mention the carters points they got...the bunnings rebates they never mentioned to the clients...the trip to fiji....and they won't have spent an hour in the last ten years looking for a better price or product for their customer...cause that's not how the game is played today...

Interesting times...popcorn

by BeeBop | 9th Sep 21, 9:55am 1631138142

Fletchers and builders and the whole B***dy lot (14% for one supplier), standard residential builder will grab 15% margin (covering profit and P&G and then front load their contracts to the maximum)....but another of the huge cartels is the lines company (V****r) and those running the traffic management supply. Whole thing seems to be based off the FHB grant setting a baseline for who can grab their share e.g. 700k means a 100k bit of land, 90k GST for the govt, 25k for infrastructure, another 25k for consultants to grab, banks get a good portion charging higher rates, developer margin will be around 100k so leaves maybe 350k for the construction and site works....there was plenty of cash to be made. Maybe this will bring it to a grinding halt and the fat cat middle people will be pushed out the more that gets exposed.

by waymad | 10th Sep 21, 8:26am 1631219163

And the icing on the cake: them Giant Brains have decreed that 100, count 'em, 100- workers are to be allowed to Produce.

That's across all production, not per supplier.

Maybe dese Gubmint guys are on commission per fustercluck, the more cf's, the more moolah?