Business South

Page 1

May 2013

www.waterfordpress.co.nz

Making a splash in Selwyn - Page 24

Step forward for briquette plant Jo Bailey Solid Energy’s Southland lignite briquette plant has successfully completed a rigorous fiveday performance test, the final phase in the commissioning process. Fred Schulte, chief executive of South Australian based GTL Energy Ltd – which has entered into a joint-venture at the plant with Solid Energy - says the company is “extremely satisfied” with the results. “The plant performed very well and met the threshold of running contiguously for three of the five days of testing,” says Schulte. “We are still waiting for some final laboratory

results around product quality. However initial indications are good and we don’t anticipate any problems.” The company is now planning its work schedules “going forward”, he says. Feedstock for the plant comes from Solid Energy’s nearby New Vale Mine. Utilising GTL Energy coal-upgrading technology, the low grade coal is turned into a higherrank fuel by removing moisture from the coal and transforming it into the briquettes, which have an increased energy content, reduced emissions, improved handling and transportation characteristics and increased market value. Once fully up and running the Mataura plant is designed to produce about 90,000 tonnes a year of

briquettes from about 150,000 tonnes of lignite. The product will eventually be trialled in thermal export coal markets, but once the data from commissioning is analysed, the next step is to consider trials in the South Island energy market with potential customers. In terms of the wider picture, Schulte said he was unable to comment about the joint venture arrangement between Solid Energy and GTL Energy. The new partnership was announced on March 1, at which time it was noted that the deal had not only secured the future operations of the plant, but will focus on project development and global commercialisation of GTL Energy’s coal upgrading technology. Schulte says the achievement of “continuous,

safe and reliable production” at the Mataura plant is important stepping stone to enable the company to continue with the commercialisation of its technology worldwide. The technology has already been proven on a commercial scale in North Dakota, where GTL Energy ran a similar sized plant that successfully produced lignite from coal samples sourced from several countries. “To fully commission the Mataura plant is a further demonstration of the technology at scale.” Schulte says there has already been “a lot of industry-wide interest” in the technology from Indonesia, Australia, North America and other countries. “We believe there is significant potential for it going forward.”

Web retailing makes inroads Chris Hutching Online shopping is continuing to make inroads into traditional retailing in New Zealand. According to the April 2013 release of the Household Use of ICT survey from Statistics New Zealand, there were 1.856 million online shoppers who made a purchase in the 12 months preceding the survey, which was up 30% from the 2009 survey. “Retailers who fail to use multiple strategies are losing potential sales and need to get an online presence now,” Colliers director research, Alan McMahon, says. Total retail spending in 2012 was $69 billion and online shopping represents nearly 5% of this amount. However by 2016, the online spend could rise to between 6% and 7% of the total retail spend if online sales grow at a similar rate as over the past two years, McMahon says. The latest figures come as Jones Lang LaSalle forecasts significant new demand for retail mall space. The report claims Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are under supplied. New Zealand has 0.4sqm of mall space per person compared with the US market at 2sqm of mall space per person, resulting in oversupply and a stagnant market for mall assets, JLL says. Melbourne has 0.88sq m of mall space per person, and Sydney 1.07sq m per person. At the same time, an AC Neilsen report says New Zealand is saturated with supermarkets following the opening of nine new Progressive and Foodstuff stores. This is despite the fact that overall supermarket spending has remained static.

INSIDE

It’s all about communication.... Tara King, communications lead at Fletcher, and Herman Kriel, site engineer, explain the timeline for repair work to residents in Hendon Street, in the Christchurch suburb of St Albans. The work is one of numerous projects being done by the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) as part of the city’s earthquake recovery.

Exporting NZ technology - PAGE 3

Bringing inventor’s vision to life - PAGE 6

Collaboration the key - PAGE 7

SCIRT general manager, Duncan Gibb says a key part of its work is communicating with residents and road-users “so people have a clear idea of what the work entails, how long it will take and any safety considerations”. He says SCIRT is on track to complete its $2.2 billion rebuild programme by 2016. Story page 9

Infrastructure rebuild on track - PAGE 9

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