Asian demand boosts city plant
Date : 2007-09-19
NDA Engineering is keeping up with Asian dairying conversions by manufacturing some of the components in Hamilton.
By Chris Gardner
Chief executive Rob Alloway said the Te Rapa Rd plant had been manufacturing for the Asia market since August because its stainless steel fabrication plant in Shanghai, China, could not keep up with demand.
"There's just huge demand for fabrication," Mr Alloway said. The Chinese market was likely to expand, over the next decade, as living standards and disposable income increased there, Mr Alloway said.
"We are building milk power plants for a range of customers in China, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Indonesia."
Mr Alloway said the Shanghai plant, like the US and Hamilton plants, was finding it difficult to recruit skilled staff due to a global shortage of training programmes last decade.
Despite the difficulties Mr Alloway said the manufacturer of milk vats, tankers, wine silos and heat exchangers was looking to expand into Europe while almost doubling its $175 million turnover to $300 million in two years. The company is also seeking a public listing in the same timeframe.
The company expanded in the US last month when it snapped up the Southern Heat Exchange Corp in Alabama, which has a 15 per cent market share in the US, and is considering upgrading the plant on a greenfields site close to the current factory.
"Most people don't understand the scale and reach that NDA has got now," Mr Alloway, who joined the company as chief executive a year ago, said.
"In the US we see an opportunity to extend our business."
Mr Alloway said while it was easy to assume Fonterra was the company's largest customer, its biggest was actually Exon Mobil.
"They are the second biggest company in the world," Mr Alloway said.
While the company would do well out of this season's record Fonterra payout, Mr Alloway said the company did not want to rely on the small economy of New Zealand for its future.
Source: Waikato Times
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