Methanex looks for recruits
New Zealand’s sole processor and exporter of methanol is hiring more staff – with $100,000 base salaries – after seeing a clearer future for the industry through the next decade, and possibly beyond.
Canada-based Methanex plans to employ 14 plant operators for the company’s three sites at Motunui, Waitara Valley and Port Taranaki.
The recruitment programme will fill long-term staff retirements as well as train new employees over the next three years.
The operator positions, which closed on February 13, have attracted 300 applications.
Methanol, which is made from natural gas, is exported to Asia to be made into building materials, foams, resins, plastics, paints, polyester and a range of health and pharmaceutical products.
Motunui operations manager Alistair Simmers said the company had long-term certainty in New Zealand after renewing a natural gas contract with suppliers last year to extend methanol production to 2029.
‘‘The long-term certainty with our gas contracts has allowed us to plan for the longer term at our sites in Waitara Valley and Motunui,’’ Simmer said.
The new contract – which amounted to half of the company’s annual production of 2.4 million tonnes – came after the Government made a surprise announcement in April to ban all offshore oil and gas exploration permits after 2020.
The ban threatened the company’s future.
Methanex employs 270 staff through four sites – Motunui, Waitara Valley, and Port Taranaki – and a small team in Auckland.
Successful qualified applicants for the plant operator positions will work 12-hour shifts, four days on and four days off – starting on a $100,000 base salary.
‘‘We have a number of staff who have been with the company for 30-35 years and are nearing retirement who we will need to replace,’’ Simmers said.
‘‘Rather than wait until people leave, we want to bring new operators on now and get them going ahead of the training curve, allowing experienced operators to transition their knowledge to a new generation.’’
In addition to taking on eight experienced operators, the company would also employ six trainees each year for the next five years. There were up to 80 operators employed within the company’s three sites in Taranaki.