Trends in the importation of building and construction products

About the report

This exploratory research report provides insights into the supply chain of building products imported into New Zealand. It makes use of the Overseas Merchandise Trade dataset, covering the period from January 2015 to December 2021.

The objectives of this project are to explore the Overseas Merchandise Trade dataset to identify and categorise building and construction goods that are imported into New Zealand, and report on the importation trends of these goods.

Background

The Overseas Merchandise Trade dataset provides information on the import and export of merchandise goods between New Zealand and other countries.

Data on these imports and exports (the Overseas Merchandise Trade dataset) are recorded at the border by Customs New Zealand and are published by Statistics New Zealand on a regular basis.

This Dataset includes all imported and exported products that are coded via the worldwide Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding Systems (HS). The HS classifies all products into ‘chapters’ to help determine what type of products they are (such as foodstuffs, textiles, metals, and machinery).

There is a need for robust analytical evidence to monitor the products that are being imported to be used in New Zealand’s construction industry and this report provides a general overview of some of those trends.

Report

Summary of the key findings

• Since 2015, there was a general increase in the value of building and construction products imported into New Zealand.
  • In 2021, an estimated NZ$5.67 billion worth of building and construction products were imported. This represented an increase of $2.2 billion or 66% since 2015.
  • On average, an estimated value of imports for building and construction goods accounted for approximately 7 to 8% of the total imports each month.

• The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global shipping delays were the likely factors impacting on this. However, since then, the importation of building and construction products showed signs of recovery in 2021, with the value of imports increasing.
• China and Australia were the two top countries that building and construction products were imported from.