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Recent key developments in MAKE│NZ
We’re back after our Easter/ANZAC break! Hopefully everyone else is back, well-rested, and didn’t miss us too much last week! (missing us a little is not only okay, but encouraged)
Great to see some new and familiar faces at the Hardware NZ Meetup watch party back on the 15th. We got to learn about some very varied manufacturers in New Zealand- ranging from full VR simulators used by the military, video game lovers, and more, to self-refilling pest traps that cover a large portion of the domestic and international pest control market. We’ll be keeping in touch with the Hardware NZ team and will keep you in the loop on any future events!
In some exciting news, we’re now less than a month away from our Manufacturing Industry Conference!
With the calendar counting down to the big day now is the best time to get yourself and your team signed up. We’ll be having some fantastic speakers, insightful case studies, and catering provided by Venues Otautahi- which still hasn’t been locked in yet. Make sure to let us know you’re coming so we can make sure you end the day with your mind full of ideas and your stomach full with good food.
Tuning your Production Engine – Manufacturing Industry Conference
Make sure to get your tickets here, and see if you’re eligible for discounted tickets as a community member!
Recent key developments in New Zealand
• We have seen some great initiatives recently – a renewed effort to attract more (young) people into manufacturing. The AMA has launched its Future Makers video and social media campaigns (https://youtu.be/JFVv2V6nbFc and https://youtu.be/CidOG1cLvDE ), and one of the participants – Hamilton Jet in the person of Rob McKenzie-Carroll – have also published their own recruitment video (https://youtu.be/kHDpUh68Vzo )
In this example, there are some shots of the actual factory operations …
… but the key message from the overall composition of the video appears to be product-focused: “come work for us, we make really cool stuff”
Will this approach work? It seems to work for Rocket Lab – spot the over-45-year-old in the photo below:
The approach to marketing careers in manufacturing described here is based on certain assumptions. One is that social media videos (on particular platforms) are a key source of information used by the target group to make career choices. The other is that information about career opportunities (first AMA video) and industry capability – to make ‘exciting stuff’ – in the second AMA video above, and the Hamilton Jet video, will strongly influence career choices in the target group.
The problem with these assumptions is that we do not have any solid evidence to support either. The simple – and frustrating – reality is that while there is a lot of evidence from casual observation (anecdotal evidence), we are not aware of any systematic and comprehensive New Zealand social research into the processes that lead (young) people to choosing to pursue a career in manufacturing – or, more importantly, not to do so. Successful marketing campaigns need to be based on the understanding and targeting of the key drivers of purchasing decisions, and that understanding is still missing in our case.
That doesn’t mean that the well-crafted video clips referred to above, and the AMA’s Future Makers campaign, are necessarily off-target. But they might be.
Recent key developments in the World
• As we have mentioned before, the underlying drivers of the current US government’s trade policies can be summarised as:
– For economic, national security and social reasons, the USA needs a strong manufacturing base
– Previous US governments have allowed that base to erode and be relocated to and taken over by other countries
• The shipbuilding industry may serve as a useful case study here. At the end of World War II, the USA was the dominant builder of commercial ships by far:
In the ensuing decades, that role was taken over by Japan, and South Korea, respectively. Which didn’t raise any major concerns, because both countries were seen as strong allies of the US. Even when China started to emerge as a major player, the US initially didn’t respond to that. It is only since the US have started to see China as a serious economic and strategic competitor, that the Biden and current Trump governments have decided to act in response. As mentioned earlier (https://makenz.org/2025/03/11/manufacturing-matters-tuesday-top-up-27/ ), in April 2024 the US Tarde Representative [USTR] ordered an Investigation into China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Targeting the Maritime, Logistics, and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance.
The investigation revealed what was described as “unfair or discriminatory practices by foreign countries [China] that burden or restrict US commerce” and on April 17, 2025, the USTR issued a Notice of Action in this matter (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-04-23/pdf/2025-06927.pdf ) The Notice contains a raft of provisions, among others imposing ‘Service Fees’ on Chinese Vessel Operators and Vessel Owners of China, and, separately, on : Vessel Operators of Chinese-Built Vessels, affecting operators of Chinese-built ships located outside of China, including the USA itself.
When and in what form these Service Fees – payable upon the first entry to a US port for any given voyage – will actually be applied remains somewhat unclear. There is a 6-month grace period before any fees will be charged, providing the opportunity to remedy some of the inconsistencies in the Notice. For example, the Notice uses the net tonnage of a vessel as a basis for calculating these fees; net tonnage usually being defined as the total interior volume of a ship’s cargo spaces. The Notice itself doesn’t define the term, which is generally seen as a poor parameter for assessing the ability of a vessel to carry freight.
As it stands, the service fee for Chinese-built ships will start at US$18 per net ton, rising to $33 in 2028, On a per-container basis, the rates are $120, and $250 in 2028. Fees will be charged on whatever is the higher amount.
For Chinese owned and operated ships, fees will start at $50 per net ton, rising to $140 in 2028. Interestingly enough, there are no provisions for container-based fees here.
Fee charges are limited to a maximum of five times per year and vessel.
Are these material charges? They may not be for the first category – Chinese-built ships. Chinese-owned shipping lines, however – first and foremost COSCO – will be impacted much more severely.
It is almost certain that we will see changes in logistics arrangements – which ships and ports are being used – that will have an impact on shipping beyond the transpacific route, but there are limits to those rearrangements. Canadian and Mexican pacific ports, for example, simply don’t have the capacity to match what the ports of LA and Longbeach are handling today. And the US government has already announced that it will take stringent measures to capture those attempts to re-route shipments.
As these charges will only come into effect on October 14, 2025, they don’t have any impact on vessel and freight movements yet. That doesn’t apply to the tariffs imposed on China in particular already. The impact of those on transpacific shipping is still not entirely clear. There was a significant increase in shipments in Q1 in anticipation of the tariffs, and some indicators (like blank sailings) show a downward trend, but overall, it’s still too early to say what the impact will be. Maybe the clearest signal comes from the Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, who yesterday predicted a 35% decline in cargo arriving at the Port of Los Angeles by next week as “essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased.” The Port of LA is by far the biggest port in the US and the most important entry point for freight from China.
In the meantime, and in parallel, on April 9 the US President has issued an Executive Order to restore American maritime dominance (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-americas-maritime-dominance/ ). The Order directs the creation of a Maritime Action Plan (MAP) to revitalise U.S. maritime industries and will provide a strategy with specific actions to restore and create sustained resiliency for the American maritime industry. It contains a long list of proposed actions, including “financial incentives program to boost private investment in U.S. shipbuilding”, and, worth noting, “expanding Mariner training and education through an investment in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a plan for expanding training opportunities.” In announcing the Order, the US President said that “We used to make so many ships. We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.”
But will it? As for other initiatives to promote the reshoring manufacturing to the US, major questions remain. Where will the labour and the capital come from? (How fast) will American shipbuilders catch up with the technologies developed and used in China that allowed that country to become the leading shipbuilder globally? We’ll see.
Manufacturing is a bit like a good reputation. Easily lost if it isn’t looked after, and very hard to regain.
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