Local trade mission success

Press, 18 April 1981, Page 19

Local trade mission success

From lAN HOWELL, director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, who is manager of the New Zealand Trade Mission in Houston.

A New Zealand Trade Mission to Houston — the first New Zealand mission ever to concentrate only on one city — has found excellent prospects in Texas for New Zealand goods.

When the eleven-man mission concluded its work in Houston last week-end. all manufacturers had achieved firm orders or had excellent prospects for future sales. The mission was lead by Mr B. J. Fraser, a Christchurch manufacturing engineer, and a former president of the Export Institute.

The mission administration was handled by the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association.

Mr Fraser recalled that when the mission was originally organised it was strongly emphasised that the chances of definite orders on a first visit to an American market were doubtful. “The orders achieved and the excellent prospects for future orders far exceed our initial expectations. It is significant that many mission members will be making individual visits back to Houston during this year to further expand their opportunities here,” said Mr Fraser. Houston, the fifth-largest city in the United States, and the United States energy centre, is virtually unaffected by the United States recession. Its unemployment is just under three per cent, and each week over one thousand people move to Houston to take up new positions.

The mission recognised that New Zealand exporters could not compete against the long run mass production lines and concentrated on the more specialist areas where they found they could compete on quality and price.

Lines where mission members have been successful include engineering products, specialist packaging, timber

products, furniture, hardware, and specialist radio communication equipment.

In some cases mission' members have to apppoint distributors, or set up their own warehouses to service retailers in the area, but with the New Zealand Stuping Corporation’s direct shipping service from Lyttelton to Houston, the Houston area is an excellent base for distributing to other parts of

the United States. In one case, a member’s initial orders will exceed one and a half container loads.

One of the most challenging mission prospects is the interest being shown by a Houston-based company in having oil rigs and oil rig equipment manufactured in New Zealand for South-East Asia.

With the intensive worldwide oil exploration at the

present time, United States oil equipment suppliers cannot meet the international demand.

Some equipment is being made ' outside the. United States, but cost of transport to South-East Asia from these centres is extremely costly. It has been estimated that if this equipment could

be made in New Zealand the

saving in transport from New Zealand to South-East

Asia could, exceed SUSIM per rig.

A detailed study is at present being made concerning this possible project, particularly in the field of financing the rigs, but it may provide a new field for New Zealand’s heavy engineering industry. Most mission members will make other calls in the United States before returning to New Zealand.