An export journey

Duroweld’s Pipemaster SM-10 has only one purpose, but has attracted the attention of a company in Spain. Managing director of the Taranaki-based company Richard Mascull shares the process of exporting this product.  

“Just over three years ago we got an enquiry from the Canary Islands, and nothing came of it,” says Richard Mascull, managing director of Duroweld.

“And then about this time last year they reconnected with us wanting to relook at it, so we priced it up and they went ahead with purchasing.”

Designed to enhance the longevity of gas and oil pipes by putting bands of weld on pipe, the $100,000 machine is due to have recently arrived at its overseas destination.

This comes after a process of around 12 months.

Currently, Mascull says that the biggest challenge for companies is “getting the right components quick enough”.

“Originally we said around 90 days to manufacture it, but that stretched out to more than that due to Covid restrictions and so on.”

And now that the machine has reached the end of its voyage, there are still a few things that need to be done.

One of these tasks includes helping the purchasing company in Spain get the Pipemaster machine CE certified.

“We also need to writ up an instruction manual, that hasn’t been done yet,” says Mascull. “These have been our biggest challenges – it’s more the paper side, getting it certified so they can use it in Europe.”

But this hasn’t discouraged the Taranaki business from hoping to export another of the Pipemaster SM-10 in the future.

“The advice I would give is you can do it, nothing is impossible. If someone says something is hard, that’s when we get going.

“I suppose the biggest thing comes down to what sort of a team you’ve got. If you’ve got a really good team that is willing and prepared to work some long hours and overcome hurdles that might come up, there’s nothing too hard that you can’t do. The Kiwi tenacity, I guess, is the big thing.”