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Photo: Beef and Lamb NZ Drought and on-going low returns for sheep-meat has seen sheep numbers fall yet again - with the flow on effects being felt in rural communities around the country. Beef and Lamb New Zealand's latest stock number survey shows sheep numbers fell 4.3 per cent in the year to the end of June - to 23.31 million. Breeding ewe numbers are down 2.9 per cent while hogget numbers dropped seven per cent. It continues the trend with sheep numbers dropping for the last decade. The report said in previous years the primary driver had been land use change as a result of the conversion of sheep and beef farms into forestry. This year the primary drivers were low sheep prices and drought in parts of the country. "This has seen farmers needing to destock and has impacted on the out...

Photo: 123RF Mercury Energy has more than doubled its full-year profit, as operating earnings improved thanks to high wholesale electricity prices and changes in the value of unhedged financial assets. Key numbers for the 12 months ended June compared with a year ago: Net profit $290m vs $103m Revenue $3.42b vs $2.73b Operating earnings $877m vs $841m Final dividend 14 cents per share vs 13.1 cps Mercury said hydro generation of 4096 gigawatts was down 21 percent on the prior year's record generation as lake levels fell due to low rainfall. Operating earnings rose by $36 million, supported by an increased trading margin of $1.23 billion (up $65m from 2023), driven by high wholesale power prices and new wind generation from the Kaiwera Downs wind farm. Its net profit was also boosted as...

Photo: 123RF A large forest products company, Winstone Pulp International, is planning to shut its entire operation as a result of high wholesale energy prices. Earlier this month, the company paused work at its two sites Tangiwai Sawmill and Karioi Pulpmill to consider its future. In a statement on Tuesday, Winstone Pulp said it told employees about a proposal to close indefinitely at a meeting today. If the plan goes ahead 230 people would lose their jobs. Winstone Pulp chief executive Mike Ryan said energy prices have increased from $100 per megawatt hour (MWh) in September 2021 to $500 per MWh in August 2024. He said power now makes up more than 40 percent of the company's costs and the increase can't be passed on to customers. "For comparison, our overseas competitors are paying bet...

Andrew Reding is an industry veteran and has previously worked for Fletcher Building Photo: Supplied Fletcher Building appoints Andrew Reding Chief Executive. The company had temporary leadership for six months Reding is an industry veteran and previously worked for Fletcher Building He will do strategic review of the group Troubled building products and construction firm Fletcher Building has appointed an industry veteran, Andrew Reding, as its new chief executive after a six month search. Reding previously headed Fletcher's Building Products and Wood Panels operations between 1997 and 2006, as well as managing several parts of Graeme Hart's Rank Group, including Carter Holt Harvey. Fletcher's acting chair of the board Barbara Chapman said Reding's experience and industry knowledge m...

Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Property investors will switch from being the "hunted" to the "hunters" as conditions improve for them, Kiwibank says. Real Estate Institute data for July shows the number of houses being listed on the market continued to increase last month, but the number of properties sold also picked up. Its data shows the number of sales lifted 14.5 percent on the same time a year earlier, to 5806, and increased by almost 20 percent on the month before. "Although we have not yet reached the spring selling season, we are observing early signs of growth in the market not typically associated with this time of year. This can be seen through the seasonally adjusted data, which indicates an increase of 5.4 percent in national sales compared to last year, which reflects a marke...

Photo: 123RF The fact that about half the population is saving for retirement despite the current cost-of-living crisis shows how resilient people are, the Retirement Commission says. New research gathered by the commission found more than half of the 3000 survey respondents described their financial position as "uncomfortable". Women were feeling it more - as were young people aged between 18-35, the commission's personal finance lead Tom Hartmann said. "The situation of financial discomfort for women has significantly worsened … since 2022, it's gone from 51 percent to 60 percent and 64 percent of women report feeling financial stress," Hartmann told Midday Report. "It's quite concerning to see so many New Zealanders struggling financially but it's good to see those who manage to sti...

The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Southland. Photo: ekays/123RF The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter has agreed to further reduce its energy use to help ease the country's supply constraints. The agreement with Meridian Energy would see the smelter reduce electricity consumption by another 20 megawatts (MW), with the energy made available to the national grid over a five-week period. The deal was separate to earlier demand response agreements signed with Meridian and Contact Energy. New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS), said it had taken off 185 MW of usage already and the additional 20 MW would help reduce pressure on the grid. Twenty MW would be enough to power all the homes in the city of Napier, NZAS said. New Zealand's electricity supply has come under immense strain in recent mont...