Page 6 - HW July 2022

hard news
TUMU carries on
regardless
While the Commerce Commission mulls its decision on the merging of Fletcher Distribution and TUMU’s six stores and frame & truss plant, the operation continues developing apace.
Take the progress on the massive new space at the Havelock North site (see photo) which features a European- style portal knee connection along with Potius engineered timber panels for the mid-floor area.
The builders are Alexander Construction and PG Constructors, with Strata Group Consultancy taking care of the civil and site monitoring work.
The merger decision date having been pushed out following high levels of interest, submissions and cross- submissions on its Statement of Issues, ComCom expects to announce its final decision on 28 July.
You can see all the submissions and cross-submissions on the Statement of Issues at the URL below, although much of the really juicy evidence around market shares etc has been redacted from the public documents.
https://comcom.govt.nz/case- register/case-register-entries/fletcher- distribution-limited-and-tumu-itm
July a big month for building industry changes
JULY MAY WELL be one of the most important – and disruptive – months for the broader building industry in recent times.
For a start, we await the preliminary findings of the Commerce Commission’s Market Study into Residential Building Supplies.
Then there is the deadline on whether to delay the H1 Energy Efficiency changes until 2023.
And finally there’s the highly anticipated final decision on a go or no-go for the FDL-TUMU merger which is expected on 28 July (see our update here on the left ).
Market Study into Residential Building Supplies – Kicked off in November 2021, the Government asked the Commerce Commission to carry out a year-long study into “whether competition for residential building supplies in New Zealand is working well and, if not, what can be done to improve it.”
Similar studies addressed competition issues in the grocery sector and retail fuel and ComCom says of the Study into Residential Building Supplies: “We are considering any factors that may affect competition for the supply or acquisition of key building supplies used to build
the major components of residential buildings,” i.e., foundation, flooring, roof, and walls.
Three surveys have been carried out covering specifying and purchasing key building supplies, a supplier survey across product types, distribution options, pricing practices, and set-up costs and one across potential regulatory barriers in relation to key building supplies.
All three surveys closed in May with ComCom promising a draft of
preliminary findings about competition for residential building supplies “around July 2022” and perhaps outlining some options to improve competition, after which feedback will be sought.
The final report is due by 6 December 2022.
https://comcom.govt.nz/about-us/our- role/competition-studies/market-study- into-residential-building-supplies
Extension of the H1/AS1 5th Edition
– MBIE having previously indicated
that a decision following consultation on the proposed extension of the H1/ AS1 5th Edition around the forthcoming insulation regime, would be made on 1 July, on 6 July it announced a delay.
It is clear that the sheer level of submissions for and against postponing the introduction of a new insulation regime originally planned for November this year until May 2023 was a big surprise.
A Building System Performance communication had this to say: “MBIE received over 800 submissions on this consultation, showing that that there is a broad range of perspectives and opinions on the matter.
“Given this high volume of submissions we have had to delay the formal outcome decision.
“We want to carefully consider all responses before making the final decision and will be in touch by 15 July with information about the feedback we received, and the final outcome of the consultation.”
Sadly, this date is after we go to press with this issue of the magazine, but we will be looking for any news and posting it online.
www.mbie.govt.nz
4 NZHJ | JULY 2022
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