Displaying items by tag: Fletcher Building

New Zealand: Fletcher Building will begin using hard-to-recycle plastics and wood as alternative fuels in its cement production process during 2025, as part of its ‘front-end firing project’, according to The Post newspaper. The company aims to be 100% coal-free by 2030. It said wood pellets and shredded tyres currently substitute for 50% of coal. The new additions will raise this to 70–80%. Fletcher Building began burning wood pellets in 2003, construction waste in 2010 and tyres in 2023. Fletcher Building said it plays a “significant role in waste diversion for New Zealand."

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has reported its financial results for the first half of its 2025 financial year, which began on 1 July 2024. The group recorded sales of US$2.05bn, down by 7% year-on-year from US$2.21bn, and negative earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) at a loss of US$14.9m. It previously recorded a positive EBIT of US$44.1m in the corresponding first half of its 2024 financial year.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has appointed Thornton Williams as CEO of its Concrete division. Williams has served as acting CEO of the division since 29 March 2024. The group noted Williams’ ‘significant’ leadership role in driving culture, customer satisfaction and sustainability. He has also been its chief financial officer (CFO) from 2021, before which he was group general manager, treasury and risk. He previously worked in dealer roles at Australia-based banking group ANZ and the Bank of New Zealand. Williams holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Incoming group CEO and managing director Andrew Reding said "Thornton brings to the role a deep understanding of the commercial drivers of the Concrete business and the competitive landscape. He is therefore well-positioned to lead this high-performing division, not only as Fletcher Building navigates the current challenging trading conditions but also as economic conditions start to improve and opportunities for profitable and sustainable growth emerge.” Reding added “I look forward to working closely with Thornton and the Fletcher Building executive team when I formally commence my role on 30 September 2024. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank acting CEO Nick Traber for his support and commitment in enabling an orderly and smooth handover of the CEO role.”

New Zealand: Fletcher Building says that a mechanical issue with a cement carrier ship is causing operational business for its Golden Bay Cement subsidiary. The Marine Vessel Aotearoa Chief (MVAC) ship is currently docked at Northport while inspections and repairs are made by the owner. The New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported that the ship is owned by China Navigation Company, an operating arm of the Hong Kong-based Swire. The ship normally transports cement around the North Island from Golden Bay’s cement plant near Whangārei. The cement producer added that “The timeframe required to make the necessary repairs and source replacement parts, is not known at this time.” Fletcher Building’s preliminary assessment is that it expects the impact on its 2025 financial year earnings to be up to US$18m.

Golden Bay has enacted its contingency plans to cope with the outage and is talking to its customers. It is using alternative transport options to distribute cement. including the use of an existing coastal barge and the greater use of road and rail options. The company is also investigating longer-term solutions, which include potentially sourcing the use of alternative cement supplies from domestic and offshore suppliers along with securing the use of a replacement ship if required.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building says that its subsidiary Golden Bay cement is waiting to embark on a US$119 – 178m course of capital expenditure (CAPEX) investment. However, the group said that it will first require ‘clarity from the government’ on any upcoming changes to industrial CO2 emissions allocations or border adjustments.

CEO Ross Taylor said “Until we get certainty there, we really can’t pull the cord.” He added “There’s a good pipeline of existing stuff which will really start maturing in two or three years, but there’s another really sizeable pipeline beyond that.”

Fletcher Building invested a total of US$182m across its businesses during the 2023 financial year, which ended in June 2023. The Bay of Plenty Times newspaper has reported that the investments are part of the group’s growth strategy for the four-year period up to the end of the 2027 financial year. Planned areas for investments include adding value to the group’s wood products by developing its alternative fuel (AF) capacity. The growth strategy has a budget of US$474m.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building recorded sales of US$5.07bn during the 2023 financial year, down slightly year-on-year from US$5.08bn in the 2022 financial year. Its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) fell by 29% to US$296m from US$419m. The drop in earnings was mainly attributed to additional costs allocated to the New Zealand International Convention Centre and Hobson Street Hotel project. Adjusted for significant items, the group’s EBIT rose by 6% to US$477m from US$452m.

Throughout the year, Fletcher Building’s cement subsidiary Golden Bay Cement co-processed 100,000t of waste as alternative fuel (AF). The producer awarded a bottom ash supply contract to Huntly Power Station. It also launched EcoZero carbon neutral cement, which is its EcoSure reduced-CO₂ cement with the remaining emissions offset.

Chief executive officer Ross Taylor said “Looking forward to the 2024 financial year, we expect some further tightening in our overall volumes and so our focus remains on strong customer performance, cost control and pricing disciplines across our businesses. We have shown we are well equipped to continue performing solidly through the cycle.”

New Zealand: Cement producer and construction firm Fletcher Building has reported a 20% year-on-year drop in domestic housing demand during the first quarter of 2023. The Australian newspaper has reported that the company attributed the decline to ‘soaring’ interest rates in the country. It now expects to sell 800 residential units in 2023, 20% below its previous expectation of 1000 units. Fletcher Building said that building materials costs rose by 5 – 10% between 2020 and 2022, due to ‘higher input and commodity costs’ in production.

CEO Ross Taylor said that Fletcher Building faces labour shortages in its civil construction business, but maintained a strong order pipeline. Taylor said “It won’t drive an uptick in volumes but it will underpin the volumes in the next three to four years.”

New Zealand: Fletcher Building Materials recorded consolidated sales of US$5.37bn during its 2022 financial year, up by 4.7% year-on-year from US$5.13bn in the previous year. Its net earnings also rose by 42%, to US$273m from US$193m.

The group's concrete division, which includes Golden Bay Cement, contributed US$556m-worth (9%) of group sales. The figure represents an 8% increase from 2021 financial year levels. The business recorded 'strong performances' across all key product segments, underpinned by 'robust' demand and pricing. It made capital expenditure investments of US$51.1m, including in a waste tyre recycling system upgrade at the Golden Bay cement plant. The latter increased the plant's alternative fuel (AF) substitution to 50% from 35%. The company also continued to focus on developing low-CO₂ concrete binders.

Fletcher Building Materials chief executive officer Ross Taylor said "The 2022 financial year has not been without its challenges. Global and national supply chain disruptions have continued into the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic." He added "The New Zealand Commerce Commission recently published its interim market study report into residential building supplies. The final report and recommendations will be published in December 2022 and in the meantime we will continue to work collaboratively with both the commission and the government."

New Zealand: Golden Bay is spending US$6m on an upgrade to its Wellington cement terminal. The project will increased storage capacity, reconfigure the site for better traffic management, add new office facilities and upgrade ship discharge lines to reduce load times. Greater automation is also intended, as well as new branding for the site.

Nick Traber, Fletcher Building’s chief executive for concrete said, “Our Golden Bay Terminal has served Wellington well for many decades and has contributed to some of the region’s biggest infrastructure projects along with countless houses, driveways and other developments. The upgrade is a key part of our strategy to remove bottlenecks in our operations to drive growth and reduce costs, as well as increase the resilience of our supply chain using all modes of transport. It’s a demonstration of our commitment to local manufacturing as New Zealand's only and lowest carbon cement producer.”

New Zealand: Fletcher Building is expecting to declare lower earnings in the half year to 31 December 2018 due to a regional slowdown, particularly in Australia. Its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the six month period was around 10% lower than the same period of the 2017-2018 financial year. It is expected to be in the range of US$432-467m.

In a report Fletcher Building said, “While the company continues to target a result at the top end of this range, it is prudent at this stage in the year to highlight that the 2019 financial year EBIT will be impacted by the outage at the Golden Bay Cement plant, the slowdown in the Australian residential market and the reduction in land development earnings compared to last year.”