| 67 T T Hugh de Lacy Logging road services a new focus Port Blakely is Black Contracting’s sole client. Black Contracting Rising costs in the forestry industry have prompted Otago company Black Contracting to add logging road building and maintenance to it harvesting services for the big American forest-owner and manager Port Blakely. Black Contracting is owned and run by Warren Black who, until he founded the company in 2007, was a senior business advisor with Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). Twenty-seven years later, Port Blakely is still Black Contracting’s sole client, but it’s a lot bigger and more sophisticated operation than when Warren and his brother-in-law Callum McLeod launched it with just themselves, a skidder and an excavator. Today Black Contracting boasts around 15 items of major plant, the latest acquisition being a Madill 172B hauler imported last year and just about to be put to work for the first time. Other plant includes a roller and grader recently acquired to build forestry roads in support of an existing bulldozer. “Things have been pretty tough in the forestry business over the past couple of years with global demand low, hiccups in the China trade, and rapid cost increases in plant and equipment, especially fuel and labour,” Warren says. While the marketing of the logs the company harvests is all handled by Port Blakely, Warren has had to trim his costs to stay viable at a time when other forestry contractors around the country have been going to the wall. “We’re lucky to have Port Blakely as our client because it’s an old company that’s seen all the ups and downs of the forestry industry before, and knows how to survive,” Warren says. Port Blakely has no less than 35,000ha of New Zealand forests under its ownership, having added a 3000ha Clutha property to its portfolio in 2019. It was started as a sawmill at Blakely Harbour on Bainbridge Island, Washington State, by a Nova Scotian sea-captain, William Renton, in 1864, and has gone on to establish large expanses of renewable forest throughout the United States. It launched a New Zealand forestry division in 1993, and most of its current holdings here are in Otago and Southland. Today it is one of the country biggest forest-owners. From 2003 its forests have had their operations certified by the New Zealand Forest Stewardship Council, and since 2009 Port Blakely has been licensed to sell carbon credits under the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Black Contracting has a full-time staff of seven, operating separate gangs working in flat-land and hill-side log extraction, and throughout its time serving Port Blakely has focused on increasing mechanisation aimed especially at minimising environmental impacts. The bleak times for the forestry industry that followed the Covid pandemic-driven slump are slowly passing, Warren says, and the outlook for 2024 is a lot brighter than it was a year ago. “Things are starting to look up a bit now, and the word we’re getting is that there’ll be a significant improvement in the market in the second quarter of this year. “The domestic market has softened at the same time as the export market, with the local building industry feeling the inflationary pinch. “Everyone’s been working on restricted volumes in both markets and it’s been a challenge to find new efficiencies in different parts of the system, with our logging road services being the latest,” Warren says. FORESTRY BLACK CONTRACTING IS PROUD TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH Moore Markhams Otago is part of a global network of offices, providing accounting and advisory services, advising local, national and international clients in the public and private sectors. 03 477 0032 otago@markhams.co.nz markhams.co.nz Queenstown Dunedin Accountants and Advisors PROUDLY SUPPORTING AND BEEN SUPPORTED BY BLACK CONTRACTING LTD
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