Chief Executive's Upfront
Concrete Actions Moving Forward

Having emerged from the global pandemic the New Zealand construction sector has had to grapple with a slowing economy over the past 12-months. Yet despite this challenge industry remained focused on concrete action – specifically our commitment to supply quality product and our drive to become net zero carbon by 2050.

Rob Gaimster, Chief Executive

New Zealand’s post-pandemic economy felt the sting in COVID-19’s tail, with a period of recession bringing stubborn inflation and rising interest rates. Although coming off historic highs and still ‘healthy’ in terms of volumes, the default construction industry metrics of ready mixed concrete production showed a southwards trajectory across all regions and metropolitan areas.

In the September 2023 quarter, the actual volume of ready-mixed concrete produced was down 10 percent compared with the September 2022 quarter, while in the year ended September 2023 production was down 11 percent compared with the 12-months prior.

A softening in the residential construction space is largely responsible for the drop-off in concrete production, as the volume of work falling throughout the year. With the number of new homes consented in the year ended September 2023 down 20 percent compared with the year ended September 2022, this trend looks set to continue.

Non-residential work fared better, with small percentage increases in volume and value put-in-place recorded. However, the number of non-residential consents declined, hinting tight credit conditions and high interest rates dampened confidence.

Despite these difficult conditions it was pleasing to see that the concrete industry remained focussed on the twin imperatives of delivering quality product while at the same time making real progress along the decarbonisation path.

Initial work commenced to look at aligning the two Schemes in terms of performance management systems and branding. Ensuring that the Plant Audit Scheme remains current with technology were updates to documentation that catered for new in-transit slump management systems

Seeking to maintain a profile and level of appreciation amongst construction sector stakeholders, Concrete NZ continued to promote both the Precast Certification Scheme and the Plant Audit Scheme in trade media and at several events, including the SESOC conference in Christchurch during June 2023.

It was pleasing to see that the concrete sections of Masterspec’s (New Zealand's largest cloud-based specification writing platform) were revised and issued with new requirements which specify that ready mixed concrete must be supplied from plants that hold a current Certificate through the Plant Audit Scheme.

The roadmap builds on global cement and concrete industry progress, recognised by the United Nations, to achieve net zero carbon emissions. The New Zealand industry has already started its decarbonisation journey, but the roadmap formalises the collective ambition to, amongst other targets, reduce emissions by 400,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2030

By identifying seven decarbonisation ‘levers’, such as increasing the use of alternative fuels in cement manufacture as well as the increased uptake of mineral additions and low carbon materials to replace cement, the roadmap describes an achievable pathway to producing net-zero concrete by 2050 that works for our industry in New Zealand.

Although the roadmap was guided by international experience, we have demonstrated our depth of thinking and belief in achieving the primary objective by being the first country/region to include Scope 3 emissions – those from others in the value chain, excluding energy.

Equipped with the roadmap, Concrete NZ will move forward to foster a broader, validated understanding and appreciation among key audiences of the steps being taken to decarbonise, and the calculable benefits of concrete to help New Zealand achieve its emissions reduction goals.

ASSOCIATION ACTIVITY
Also worth highlighting is that the Concrete NZ conference, held in Hamilton during September 2023, attracted record delegate numbers as well as sponsorship support.

A key part of business as usual activities, the conference was a clear demonstration of the role Concrete NZ plays in bringing together all areas of the concrete industry and connecting them with the wider construction sector.

Concrete NZ also reconnected with industry following pandemic disruption via its training programme, with the always popular 3-day Concrete Technician’s Course and our project management of the BRANZ ArchEngBuild challenge being highlights.

Amongst a crowded project schedule in 2023, our push continued to raise awareness of concrete roads as a durable, safe, economic and environmentally friendly alternative to asphalt-surfaced, flexible pavement roads.

FUTURE CONSTRUCTION
Our work in the concrete road space aligns well with the new National-led Government’s strong focus on infrastructure, including its plans for a National Infrastructure Agency to coordinate government funding, connect domestic and offshore investors with New Zealand infrastructure, and improve funding, procurement and delivery.

Concrete NZ will be urging Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown, the new Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport respectively, to establish a pilot concrete road project, possibly a section of a new Road of National Significance.

This will be a positive step in positioning New Zealand along-side international approaches to roading investment, which have taken advantage of concrete’s resiliency, strength and low maintenance benefits for decades.

Concrete NZ will also be calling for explicit requirements for the use of low-carbon concrete in government-procured infrastructure and buildings, along with an overhaul of the Building Regulatory System to create a level playing field for building materials.

This more equitable environment will be based on full life-cycle analysis, increasing the minimum building design life from 50 to 100 years in the Building Code, and investing in construction Standards.

Although industry endured significant disruption over recent years, and there are many residual challenges, optimism pervades as we have a well-defined net zero carbon objective and a series of opportunities under a new Government for low carbon concrete to assist New Zealand achieve its climate resilience ambitions.

From Contractor Perspectives 2024