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Nuplex beefs up investment plans across Asia

Nuplex Industries, the specialty chemicals manufacturer, is exploring more investment opportunities across Asia, having shifted its businesses away from the firm’s traditional markets in Australia and New Zealand.  The Auckland-based company officially opened a US$35 million plant in China’s Changshu, and is already considering expansion plans for the site, where it holds a 50-year lease. The company was caught out …

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NZ primary industry firms open Chinese marketing office

A group of New Zealand primary sector firms has opened a joint marketing office in Shanghai, completing a three-year gestation to make life easier in breaking into the world’s second biggest economy.  Primary Collaboration New Zealand officially opened its office in one of China’s major cities yesterday in what chairman Andy Borland hopes will give local firms a foothold in what’s seen as …

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KIWA Publishes Popular Cartoon Stories in China

Kiwa Digital Ltd (KIWA), a world leading production house for experiential digital books based in New Zealand, is to deliver interactive cartoon stories to mobile devices in China. In a breakthrough international publishing and licensing agreement with leading Chinese television company, Beijing Kaku Media, KIWA will bring popular children’s characters to life digitally in the Chinese language. The agreement was …

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NZ posts smaller-than-expected trade surplus in February, annual deficit at 5-year high

New Zealand recorded a smaller-than-expected trade surplus in February, led by declining dairy exports, while the annual deficit widened to the largest in more than five years. Statistics New Zealand said the trade surplus was $50 million in February, lower than the $392 million expected in a Reuters poll of economists. January’s surplus was revised down to $33 million, from $56 million. The …

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MightyRiverPower will close Southdown station at the end of 2015

MightyRiverPower, whose first half earnings slumped as it wrote down the value of assets and exited its international geothermal interests, said its gas-fired Southdown power station will close at the end of the year in response to growth in renewable generation. The 140-megawatt Southdown station in Auckland had played a small role in MightyRiverPower’s portfolio the past two years, representing just …

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NZX milestone 200k of dairy derivative trades shows it’s on track to be ‘global dairy hub’

NZX says reaching 200,000 dairy derivative contracts traded across its platform shows the market operator is on track to become the global hub for trading tied to New Zealand’s biggest export commodity. Trading exceeded the trading milestone this month on the NZX Global Dairy Derivatives Market, which was launched in October 2010 to offer risk management for the dairy industry It followed the establishment of Fonterra Cooperative …

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Fonterra buys 18.8% of China’s Beingmate for about $755 million

Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s largest dairy exporter, has acquired 18.8 percent of Shenzen-listed Beingmate Baby & Child Food, falling short of the stake of up to 20 percent it was seeking in a partial tender offer. The transaction, valued at 3,464 million RMB (NZ$755 million) is well above the $615 million Fonterra indicated it would cost for a 20 percent …

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NZ economic growth to slowly come off boil in next three years: NZIER survey

New Zealand economic growth will slow over the next three years, while maintaining a “solid” pace, according to the NZ Institute of Economic Research’s consensus forecasts. The economy is expected to expand 3.3 percent in the year ending March 31, based on the median in the survey, slowing to a 2.9 percent pace in 2016, 2.8 percent in 2017 and 2.4 percent in …

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China economic reform low on government priority list, WSJ commentator says

Economic reform in China, one of New Zealand’s largest trading partners accounting for 22 percent of exports, is a lower priority than trying to save the future of the Communist party, according to Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Browne.  Speaking at a WSJ-organised event in Auckland on the future of New Zealand-China relations, Browne said the Chinese economy, the world’s second largest, is under …

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