An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale struck 33 kilometres west of the city early morning on Saturday 4 September.
Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, roads were cracked and railway lines were twisted, and damage is estimated to now be about NZ$4bn. There were no fatalities.
Printers in the area are understood to have returned to operation. Few suffered significant damage, although some in the CBD were particularly affected by power cuts and safety cordons.
However, a severe paper shortage has now been reported. BJ Ball Papers and Spicers Paper – estimated to control 90% of the market between them – both suffered damage to their local facilities.
Spicers merchanting manager Darrin Kennedy said about half of the racking profile and a reasonable portion of inventory at the company’s 3,715sqm distribution centre at Sockburn was afflicted. However, engineers confirmed the building itself was safe.
“We were quick to engage local contractors and staff from both our national and Christchurch operations to deal with the remedial work in the clean-up,” he told ProPrint.
“Critical to our clean-up was the separation of paper waste, wood, plastic and metals to maximise recycling opportunities and minimise the environmental impact.
“We were forced to halt all transactions out of our Christchurch distribution centre for nine working days during the clean-up. However, disruptions were minimised as we continued to service the print market in the Canterbury region from our national logistics framework.
He added that Spicers is now back to full operation in Christchurch.
BJ Ball is also understood to have now returned to operation following reports of severe damage to its Christchurch facilities.
Heidelberg revealed how much the quake impacted its customers in Christchurch. Movement of the presses was the main problem, with the vendor flying in an engineer from Adelaide to help get printers back online.
Chris Agius, general manager sales for Heidelberg New Zealand, said: “You just don’t know what might have come loose or fallen off from the force of such a significant quake. One 10-colour perfecting press, which weighs over 40 tonnes, moved 10mm.”
PrintNZ president John Boyle said the trade body has maintained regular contact with members of the local industry to establish where help has been needed and to co-ordinate assistance both locally and from elsewhere in the printing community.
Boyle, whose firm Rainbow Print suffered only minor damage despite being about 25 kilometres east of the epicentre, praised the community spirit.
“There has been a good print community spirit of people talking to each other, swapping paper, swapping whatever they can, helping out. We’ve had a couple of printers come in with their jobs and run them through our cylinders and guillotines.”
Boyle urged New Zealand’s print buyers to play their part in the region’s recovery.
“Canterbury is not devastated. We are actually still operating. We can still do your work; don’t send it somewhere else.”
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