28 | T T Kim Bowden Firm ramps up salvage efforts after storms NZ Insulators Kakahu clays leading the way NZ Insulators, is alive, well and growing in the small South Canterbury town of Temuka. T T Hugh de Lacy REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Stuart Drummond Transport “As a result, we have quite a condensed timeline to help the forest owners recover as much as they can, essentially…” The last porcelain manufacturer still standing in the Southern Hemisphere, NZ Insulators, is alive, well and growing in the small South Canterbury town of Temuka, and it’s putting a recycling call out for any of its old used stock. Old insulators that are replaced in the course of network maintenance and upgrading of high voltage electricity lines are a key recycling resource for NZ Insulators which has recycled more than 700 tonnes of them in the last two years. “We crush that porcelain and repurpose it into new insulators, making it an environmentally sustainable process that’s better than filling up landfills,” says Chris van der Werff, NZ Insulators’ General Manager. “It’s important for us to get our old insulators back once they’ve passed their use-by date because they contain all the key elements, in the right proportions, that we extract from our Kakahu Valley clay and sand quarry.” “We‘re able to re-cycle old crushed insulators because we know that no matter how old they are they’ve got the same specific chemical properties as the clays we extract from the seams in our own Kakahu quarry.” “The location of those clays is the key to the survival of a porcelain manufacturer in smalltown New Zealand, along with the hi-tech scientific and manufacturing processes and pre-market testing that we put them through.” Richmond-based trucking firm Stuart Drummond Transport has ramped up its operations to help salvage thousands of hectares of trees which were felled by extreme weather across the Tasman and Nelson districts last winter. General Manager, Harry Llewellyn, says the company, which is now celebrating 40 years in business, has been operating at scale since a series of severe storms in mid-2025 caused widespread windthrow damage across forestry estates in the upper South Island The impact was significant, with somewhere between six and seven thousand hectares affected. “As a result, we have quite a condensed timeline to help the forest owners recover as much as they can, essentially,” he says. “To handle the volume increase we had to ramp up quite significantly.” The response relied on coordination, rather than any one operator working alone. “We’ve seen everybody across the supply chain respond really well,” Harry says, pointing to cooperation between forest owners, harvesting contractors, other cartage providers and the port. As the largest log cartage provider in the top of the South Island, the company used a mix of internal expansion and subcontracting to meet demand. “We’ve seen between 20 and 25 additional trucks coming to the region to assist,” Harry says. While the company worked to place drivers into its existing fleet, it wasn’t always an option. “Recruiting still remains quite challenging,” he says. “It’s twofold — it’s one, finding people, but two is finding the right people.” Subcontractors, however, were able to mobilise quickly, arriving with their own trucks and experienced drivers. The disruption also forced lasting operational changes — the most significant, a move to a full 24-hour operating model. While the company had previously run a limited night shift, the salvage operation required a significant expansion of overnight work to “smooth out the supply chain” by spreading deliveries to port over a 24-hour period. Harry says the wider benefit is felt beyond the business. It reduces the number of heavy vehicles on the road at peak times, particularly through Nelson’s CBD, lowering congestion and accident risk and making daily travel easier for the public. “We operate a laboratory with three staff scientifically testing the clay body we make our insulators from, and every insulator dispatched to our customers is 100% either electrically or mechanically tested – which is why we’re able to offer a 25-year warranty.” “We end up producing high-voltage insulators with a glazed finish that adds hugely to their useful life, and it’s very difficult for our international competitors to match the quality and service that NZ Insulators provides.” The factory has eight kilns the size of 20foot (6m) shipping containers of which no more than five operate at a time “because all of them together use so much electricity they’d exceed our maximum demand limits, and that would impact other energy users in Temuka,” Chris says. The waterproof glassy finish comes from the insulators spending three to five days in a kiln at temperatures of up to 1185degC, a process that ensures there’s no porosity, a key requirement of electricity insulators. “This makes them very strong and gives a very good-looking finish, with our 11kV insulators, for example, being rated at ten kilo-Newtons for cantilever strength,” Chris says. And they’d need to be because the Temuka factory faces head-on competition from low-price producers in Asia, and it’s only NZ Insulators’ focus on quality that keeps it in the game, supplying all the major New Zealand lines operators and contractors. AVON INDUSTRIES LTD 31 Pipiwai Road, Kamo PO Box 27, Whangarei New Zealand Ph: 64 9 435 1033 Fax: 64 9 435 2565 Email: avonind@callplus.net.nz www.avonindustries.co.nz Proud to support NZ Insulators Supplier of Pole Line Hardware Such as: • Shackle Straps • Composite C/Arm Brackets • Screw Anchors • Crossarms • Eye Bolts Forged and Welded • Eye Nuts and Eye Screws PROUD TO SUPPORT NZ INSULATORS a: Cnr North & Latter Streets p: 03 684 4888 | m: 027 684 4883 | e: clayton@indeng.co.nz, webstore@indeng.co.nz www.indeng.co.nz HESLOPS 0800 HESLOPS 24HRS FOR ALL YOUR TRUCK & TRAILER REPAIR NEEDS 7 Kotua Place, Stoke | PO Box 3012 Richmond, Nelson 0800 HESLOP (437 567) | 24 HR Hotline 03 543 9400 Email admin@heslops.co.nz | www.heslops.co.nz Specialising in the Repair of: Trucks, Trailers, Buses, Cars, 4 x 4 Vehicles,Marine Engines, Heavy Equipment & Motor Homes
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