Page 18 - HW July 2022

fasteners & fixings
Towards more resilient ways of building?
From warnings of a slowdown, to changing form factors, to more resilient building methods, Steve Bohling finds out what’s top of mind in fasteners & fixings.
HOW IS THE market faring right now?
I turn first to Luke Poepsel, National Sales Manager at SPAX
Pacific, for whom the last year been “fantastic” with “good demand from both timber construction and also the merchant markets.”
Luke won’t be the odd man out however when he adds the caveat: “Despite having to absorb a lot of the cost of importation, we can still say that we had a fantastic year.”
The same qualifications come from Tait Mitchell, Group Product Manager – Fasteners/Industrial with Steel & Tube Fortress Fasteners, who talks of “pretty much the same supply issues still rearing their head,” and shipping costs which haven’t improved at all.
Satesh Govind, General Manager at NZ Nail Industries and Titan Fasteners, agrees there haven’t been too many signs of improvement in shipping or port delays and these and other costs continue to climb, although not as steeply as before, he says, with some relief.
Fortress won’t be alone either in carrying a lot more stock than in pre-Covid times and although this can create headaches around storage, Satesh says it’s a positive to have the product on hand “because if you don’t have it, you can’t sell it.”
The market is “bubbling along,” according to Tony Castledine, GM Building Product Supply Channel Asia Pacific at MiTek Asia Pacific, at the same time as admitting some “tapering”.
Indeed, MiTek’s New Zealand volumes are down a little on last year’s crazy levels, perhaps reflecting the effects of winter and weather mid-year as much as the reality of stalled projects due to supply constraints.
“2021 was just crazy,” says Tony. “It blew everybody’s expectations out of the water.”
COSTS GO UP BUT MERCHANTS SEEK VALUE
One characteristic of the current fasteners & fixings market
is a growing demand from merchants and retailers for value products, driven no doubt by customers looking to soften their
own rising costs as much as creating a competitive edge for the vendor.
One supplier, asked about this trend, offered: “Some merchants are saying their customers no longer care about quality. They just want a cheaper price.”
At the same time however, Fortress Fasteners, as with other suppliers, is having to pass on further incremental price increases which, says Tait Mitchell, still don’t really reflect the company’s growing costs.
To combat these two opposing factors, it is no secret that some suppliers are reducing the quality of their product – meaning lower grade wire and lower grade coatings – to try and fight increased costs and remain competitive or gain market share.
Trouble is, says Tait Mitchell: “If you just keep dumbing down the coating, for example, what will happen eventually is corrosion.”
Still, bending to market forces but without sacrificing quality, Fortress is set to introduce a new value range to compete at the cheaper end of the market.
Does doing that worry Tait about the future of Fortress’ higher quality range?
“Of course it does. In time, is that going to be what the market wants?
“In time, will people be willing to pay the price for having a high-quality product?” he asks.
Unwilling at this point to follow suit, Satesh Govind at NZ Nail is firm in his belief that “customers want a premium quality New Zealand-made product,” along with the advantages of speed to market.
“We have chosen to keep our products at a certain level
of quality, mainly because we don’t want to supply a product that’s poor quality or not up to standard or deal with the issues entailed with it failing,” he says.
“I guess there is always pressure from merchants and everyone probably wants cheaper prices, but I guess you’ve got to make sure the quality is there and to New Zealand standards.”
TOWARDS MORE “RESILIENT” HOMES?
Talking about standards and adding to the ongoing debate about whether our Building Code should really be about building to minimum standards, in March this year a Policy Brief for the NZSEE Resilient Buildings Project marked the latest stage in progress towards “modernising the regulatory regime required to make buildings resilient to earthquakes.”
16 NZHJ | JULY 2022
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