New Zealand’s plasterboard stocks got a boost in July, with more than 530,000 square metres of plasterboard and related products imported for the month at a value of $2.5 million.
In August 55,000 sqm of plasterboard and related-products hit New Zealand shores in one week alone, data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) showed.
MBIE system strategy and performance manager Micheal Warren said the market was responding to the ministry’s updated guidance for plasterboard substitutes released in June, after the industry was hammered by shortages.
The MBIE guidance aims to help building consenting authorities and architects to feel confident when selecting plasterboard products and reduce over-reliance on “specific products”.
Warren said New Zealand “continued to import plasterboard at pace”.
Building and Construction Minister Megan Woods has had plasterboard supplies in her sights since June, setting up a plasterboard taskforce to investigate why the construction industry supply of plasterboard was so shaky and to find potential solutions.
Fletcher-owned plasterboard product GIB holds 95% of the market.
Woods also wrote a letter of expectation to Fletcher outlining concerns the firm was using trademarks to hinder rivals from importing competitor products.
There have been three meetings of the plasterboard taskforce since then, and Woods also approved four competitor plasterboard products as acceptable to be used to meet Building Code requirements for structural bracing.
This was seen as a key stumbling block to improving competition for plasterboard. New Zealand is one of the few countries that uses plasterboard in this way.
Warren said Woods had also written to council mayors and chief executives to “increase building consent authority confidence in product substitution”, and said MBIE continued to engage with the sector to “promote appropriate plasterboard substitution”.
MBIE had not received any reports of councils not applying the new plasterboard guidance, he said.
A draft Commerce Commission report into key residential building supplies released in early August found it was too hard, slow and costly to get new supplies approved to be used in New Zealand and that architects and consenting authorities were choosing to use tried and tested products like Winstone’s GIB product.
In a taskforce update in July Woods said there were 12 importers of plasterboard, including four new importers, and about 100 containers holding approximately 220,000 sqm of plasterboard on the way to New Zealand.
The Government has estimated 1.3 million sqm of plasterboard is needed each month in New Zealand.
19 Comments
Fantastic news - comes just as house prices falling, less houses likely to be built as a result. Just what we need in NZ another glut. Next on the Government's agenda apparently is a task force of tomato prices. I wonder if MBIE will be publishing tomato volumes imported next month?
as many many people said -- it was a crisis of our own creation -- by allowing one company a monopoly and preventing fair access to other products -- as soon as we approved a variety f products -- most of which are superior in quality to Fletchers - the problem goes away!
Too many monopolies in NZ -- that have been created by successive Governments and Beauracrats --
Don't forget consumer behaviour and how big a role that plays in handing greater pricing power to certain businesses.
Butchers and green grocers struggle to get enough patronage despite offering quality and prices because Kiwis are too lazy to shop from multiple stores.
"responding to the ministry’s updated guidance for plasterboard substitutes released in June,"
Begs the question why didn't this happen years ago?
"MBIE system strategy and performance manager " For heavens sake what sort of a position is this? Appears a lazy CEO wants a few more underlings to do his work for him.
MBIE system strategy and performance manager
MBIE is an umbrella entity that houses multiple Crown units (INZ, Radio spectrum, Space Agency, companies office, energy markets, etc.) and provides shared services to them. The units have autonomy from the corporate in their respective domains and often report directly to portfolio ministers.
This person sits under the Building Systems Performance unit, which is NZ's building and construction regulator, and manages the strategy and performance team.
dont know about other versions of plasterboard but GIB has one redeeming feature and is biodegradable,whilst renovating on a lifestyle property,chucked the old gib board down the bottom of the section and the greasy clay soil completely absorbed the gypsum and paper,
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