Southland Marine enters Middle East
Southland marine companies poised to enter lucrative
Middle East market
A group of Southland-based marine engineering companies,
including world-class E-Type Engineering Ltd, are poised to enter
the lucrative Middle East market.
The joint venture will also involve three other leading New Zealand
marine engineering and boat building companies.
It is an ambitious project that aims to bring together a consortium
of domestically competing companies. Assisted by New Zealand Trade
and Enterprise (NZTE) the consortium will target the 2006 Dubai
Boat Show.
E-Type Engineering Chief Executive Mark Hosie said the key to
getting the consortium off the ground was having someone employed
to drive it.
“The expertise and support of NZTE is essential because they are
the ideal facilitator to make it happen,” he said. Venture
Southland was also critical in providing support to the
Southland-based companies involved, he said.
E-type Engineering is part of the Walker Group, which also
includes J K Stevenson Ltd and Southland Cranes Incorporated Ltd.
E-Type is renowned for its high-end engineering expertise having
undertaken significant manufacturing work for New Zealand Aluminium
Smelters at Tiwai Point, bungy jumping platforms for AJ Hackett in
Queenstown, and underwater observatory development in Milford
Sound.
The company even developed parts for the exhaust systems on the
motorcycles used during recent filming of The World’s Fastest
Indian in Invercargill.
They have also developed a joint venture with the Human Performance
Centre of the University of Otago following the successful
development, design, and construction of the StreamliNZ flume at
the Human Performance Centre.
The StreamliNZ flume may be used for a range of biomechanical,
physiological, and therapeutic applications including:
biomechanical analysis of swimming techniques using video-motion
analysis; physiological responses of swimmers from elite athletes
to de-conditioned patients; water exercise therapy for special
patient populations.
E-Type Engineering’s ability lies in its flexibility and capacity
to design, manufacture, install, and adapt new technology to
existing systems.Steve Canny, Venture Southland’s Group Manager -
Enterprise & Strategic Projects, says E-Type has a reputation
for tackling innovative projects and for developing distortion-free
manufacturing of Cells for the aluminium industry. E-Type’s
experience in the marine industry and their unique relationships
with other marine manufacturing companies has led to the
opportunity for expansion in the world markets.
In January 2005 Venture Southland commissioned an agent to look
at market opportunities in places like the Middle East in the food
and marine industry. Out of this arose NZTE’s plan to put together
a marine marketing company to launch sales opportunities targeting
the Dubai Boat Show.
A recent venture by J K Stevenson (also part of the Walker
Group) into building big tourist boats used by Real Journeys
Tourism operators in Fiordland is the springboard for this
initiative.
“We want to capitalise on this if there’s a need for big tourism
boats in the Middle East,” says Mark Hosie.
Other companies involved in the proposed consortium include
Invercargill-based KiwiKraft Boats; a marine design company; four
marine boat builders and a jet boat company.
Printer Friendly Page 
