Business

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...

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has welcomed the Commerce Commission's report and recommendations into the banking sector, saying it confirmed what Kiwis had long suspected: "We are not getting a good deal from the big banks." Willis said the commission had conducted its work "fearlessly" and it's conclusions were robust. "It has provided actionable insights and our government is responding with urgency." She said the sector was dominated by four major players that made up 90 percent of the market. "They are highly profitable compared with international peers, they lack innovation and they do not aggressively compete for customers." No new banks had entered the market to challenge the status quo since Kiwibank was set up, Willis said. She was joining the commission to call out market behavi...

Photo: RNZ BNZ will no longer charge first-home buyers and other low-equity borrowers a higher interest rate. The bank said on Tuesday that as well as cutting home loan rates - its one-year rate is now 6.55 percent - it was moving to a single set of home loan fixed interest rates. Previously, it offered "standard" and" "classic" rates - classic rates were available to people who had more than 20 percent equity in their properties. BNZ said the classic rate had interest rates that were 60 basis points higher. Now, borrowers with less than 20 percent equity will be able to access standard rates, although they will still be charged a low-equity premium. This premium ranges 150bps for borrowers with deposit of less than 5 percent through to 35bps with those between 15 percent and 20 percent....

Photo: 123RF Many small businesses continue to resist the transition to digital payment systems despite growing demand from consumers. Research by global small business platform Xero indicates three quarters (75 percent) of consumers will use a physical bank card to pay in store, while one-in-seven (14 percent) will use their mobile phone. Only 8 percent of customers had cash available to pay in store, compared with nearly three quarters of small businesses (72 percent) who relied on cash to keep their business going. Xero country manager Bridget Snelling said only 17 percent of small businesses offered digital payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. "Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of embracing innovative payment solutions, starting with the introduction of EFTPOS, whi...

File pic Photo: RNZ An Auckland fish trading company has been fined $360,000 and an employee jailed for buying and selling stolen fish. Sea World, which traded as Seamart and employee Marco Taukatelata, 49, were sentenced at the Auckland District Court on Friday on two charges under the Fisheries Act. Taukatelata was jailed for three years and seven months for his direct involvement in receiving and distributing thousands of dollars in illegally caught fish. A fisheries investigation found in the 11 months to November 2019, the company - a licensed fish receiver - supplied $348,000 worth of illegally obtained fish to other seafood companies. Over 97 cash transactions, there were 38,202 kilograms of snapper, 2761 kilos of kahawai and 1760 kilos of grey mullet taken - at a cash benefit to...

New research found that 37 percent of South Asian respondents use traditional banks for remittances. Photo: RNZ / 123rf The Commerce Commission has reaffirmed banking rules need to be eased, Kiwibank beefed up and open banking promoted to bring greater competition into personal banking services. The commission on Tuesday released its eagerly awaited final report into competition in the retail banking sector. Commission head John Small said stimulating competition in personal banking services requires a "multi-faceted approach to ensure that it's baked in." Small said open banking could be a game-changer, giving thousands of underserved Kiwis access to financial services and revolutionising consumer choice. The recommendations are little changed from the draft report in March and steer c...