CCANZ . Cement & Concrete Association of New Zealand

The first commercially available New Zealand cement was produced at Warkworth (North Auckland) by James Wilson & Company in 1886. For Wilson's, this was the culmination of ten years work of trail and error to produce a saleable product – as much of this development occurred while the cement industry was still in its infancy in Europe.

In 1888 another cement works was opened at Pelichet Bay in Dunedin by James MacDonald. The following year the plant was incorporated into the Milburn Lime and Cement Company.

In the early days of the New Zealand cement industry, manufacturers had to compete against U.K. or ‘Home’ made brands of cement. However, after the Second World War the New Zealand Government introduced price and import controls. As a result, the cement industry became well established, and with increases in construction, the demand for cement grew.

Golden Bay Cement Works Ltd was established in 1910 at Tarakohe, northwest of Nelson due to the availability of lime and clay and its central location. This was later bought by the Golden Bay Cement Co. Ltd in 1919. In 1918 Wilson's Cement Company was incorporated with another company (NZ Portland Cement Co.) into Wilson’s New Zealand Portland Cement, and moved to their present site at Portland, Whangarei. In 1982 Golden Bay acquired Wilson's which continued to trade under that name. In 1988 the company became known as Golden Bay Cement and the Tarakohe plant was discontinued.

In 1929 the Milburn Lime and Cement Co. moved its works to a site at Burnside, Dunedin. The next major expansion of the New Zealand cement industry occurred in 1959 when the NZ Cement Co. Ltd opened the Guardian Plant at Cape Foulwind, Westport. In 1964 Milburn and NZ Cement combined to form NZ Cement Holdings Ltd which discontinued using the Burnside Plant and was then renamed Milburn New Zealand in 1988.

In 1986, the New Zealand government deregulated the industry. This fundamentally changed how the cement industry looked in New Zealand.

At this time Holderbank (later Holcim) from Switzerland controlled 73 percent of Milburn. By 2002, the Milburn Cement Company was fully owned by Holcim and changed its brand to Holcim New Zealand.

In 1986 the UK based company Blue Circle Cement sold its majority stake in Golden Bay Cement to New Zealand interests and is now owned by the New Zealand based company Fletcher Challenge, which has worldwide interests in building, forest, paper and energy.

Today, Holcim and Fletcher Challenge dominate the cement and concrete industry in New Zealand. This is due in large part to historic reasons, environmental laws, and an abundance of timber per capita – New Zealand has one of the lowest consumption rates of cement for an OECD country.

Ward, Alistair. (1999, April). International Report : New Zealand. International Cement Review, p. 63-66.

* Source: Global Cement Report. (1996-2004). Surrey: Tradeship Publications.[Permission given]