Page 19 - HW October 2020 NEW

frame & truss
Slow, slow,
QUICK, QUICK, slow
This time last year demand for frame & truss was patchy. This year across the nation it’s busting a gut to satisfy demand and/or make up for lost time... What are the prospects? Steve Bohling reports.
SEEKING A BROAD snapshot of the state of frame & truss, I collar Daniel Howe, fresh from the Frame & Truss Manufacturers Association’s 2020 AGM where he was confirmed as the Association’s new Chair (www.ftma.co.nz).
With his Akarana Timbers Prenail Manager hat on, Daniel says: “We’re certainly very happy with the demand that we’re experiencing.”
And the same goes for the FTMA members he talked at the AGM. Comparing an almost “frantic” level of demand to a pre- Christmas rush, with builders desperate to finish their builds before something else intervenes, Daniel says: “Everybody’s books are chocker.”
Indeed, Mike Stanton says sales at MiTek NZ (www.miteknz. co.nz) are “very buoyant”. “Frame & truss is definitely very busy.”
Despite softening building consents, he says, “We’re finding that building activity and product sales have increased, which is confusing – but great – to hear.”
Trouble is, he says, not all demand is being met and he goes on to relay to me reports of delays with some builders simply unable to get their frames and trusses through.
So actually, despite the industry nibbling away at manufacturing efficiencies (of which more below) there is a still greater need for extra capacity?
Having frankly expected something of a rationalisation of
FTMA members were “very confident about the next three months. Looking ahead to the New Year there was positivity about what may happen [but they] couldn’t see [this high level of demand] stopping soon.”
“There’s definitely a focus and understanding that improved technology is going to move us forward. It’s about increased efficiency”
Since February Mark Buckenham has
been PlaceMakers’ National Manufacturing
Manager (www.placemakers.co.nz) and, with the retirement of Blake Bibbie, he becomes General Manager of Manufacturing & Estimating.
Admitting to being “surprised and delighted” by the current level of business, he says: “For the here and now, demand is very strong, period.
“And what we hear from the market, builders are still looking reasonably good for the rest of this year and into the New Year.”
So far so good. And what’s positive for the key players in frame & truss is also positive for the key suppliers.
MORE AT www.facebook.com/nzhardwarejournal
frame & truss plants thanks to Covid-19 restrictions and so forth, instead Mike Stanton readily admits that MiTek NZ has been fielding “more than a handful” of serious enquiries related to new frame & truss plants!
Some are new greenfield starts, some are related to existing plants and/or existing retailers or merchants looking at leveraging an existing building supplies business.
“If they only have a hardware store and don’t have frame &
Continued on page 39 8
OCTOBER 2020 | NZHJ 17