Pan Pac managing director Tony Clifford (left) and deputy managing director Kazuya "Kaz" Shimma take Prime Minister Chris Hipkins around the flood-damaged Napier facility. Photo / Warren Buckland
Pan Pac managing director Tony Clifford (left) and deputy managing director Kazuya "Kaz" Shimma take Prime Minister Chris Hipkins around the flood-damaged Napier facility. Photo / Warren Buckland
One of Hawke’s Bay’s most prominent industrial plants could be functioning again by early August, and a new funding announcement could help its breached stopbank prevent devastation in the future.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and recovery ministers toured the flood-damaged Pan Pac Forest Products Ltd timber and pulpmill in Whirinaki on Sunday, where managing director Tony Clifford explained how nearly two metres of silt and water went through the site and over the stopbanks.
“In the 30 years that I’ve been here, I’ve stood on those stopbanks and never seen the water even come close to halfway. It was a significant event and it completely overwhelmed us,” he said.
“We’ve taken probably the first month to just remove the silt.”
Clifford told Hipkins and ministers that the company had its own landfill site, which had proved useful during the recovery.
While he said physical and visual damage was minimal, the main damage was to crucial electrical and control equipment, with most of it contaminated with water and silt.
During the recovery process, the whole site had been running on generators.
“We don’t expect to get power on the site for at least another two months,” Clifford said.
Hipkins questioned when the business would be up and running again.
“That’s a very good question. At this stage, we’re working on a hypothetical date of starting half our business [the lumber business] in August,” Clifford replied.
Further business was earmarked to resume in October, but Clifford said these hypotheticals were subject to change.
“We’ve got to get the supply chain up and running again as soon as we can, not just for Pan Pac, but for everyone who lives off Pan Pac as well.”
A photo taken from the top of the stopbank protecting the back boundary of Pan Pac. Photo / Warren Buckland
When it came to the stopbank, Clifford said the plan was to strengthen, lift and extend the stopbank through to the river mouth, and a project was under way to action this.
Clifford told Hipkins that they were interested in the Government’s recent pre-Budget announcement, which included funding for stopbanks and flood protection systems.
“They won’t be Pan Pac stopbanks, they will be council stopbanks.
“Building resilience at the site is actually very important for morale.”
He said the company also needed the stopbank and protection solutions to reinsure the site and further instil future confidence for shareholders.
“This event here, roughly speaking, is going to cost us about $200 million, with an added $45m in forestry damage.
“Insurance is going to pay for probably less than half.”
According to Clifford, the company had bought the most insurance it possibly could.
“It’s all offshore insurance and it is very expensive,” he said.
“We have to self-insure through resilience.”
Deputy managing director Kaz Shimma said the company’s Japanese shareholders (Oji Holdings) were in full support of the rebuild and recovery process.
“On the second day, we spoke to them on the phone, and they said, ‘Rebuild it, do it safely and do it well,” Clifford said.
East Coast MP Kiri Allan walks along the stopbank protecting the back boundary while on a visit to Pan Pac. Photo / Warren Buckland
Full PPE (personal protective equipment) use has been required for those who had been working with silt after screening tests had revealed possible health hazards.
“In some of the early days, there was some E. coli present and some moulds,” Clifford said.
“There’s a tiny percentage of silicon that’s come down.”
He said the company was continuing to do exposure tests, where staff wear monitors to determine exposure levels.
Hipkins was told there had been ongoing talks around integrating resilience into the rebuild - however, logistical challenges had meant that a focus was geared towards getting things up and running again and then implementing resilience.
“It really is: rebuild, and then assert resilience.”
