Unburnt bricks still have 'blocked' output

Quoc Anh unburnt brick factory in Tan Lac town, Quy Chau district has temporarily stopped operations. Photo: Van Truong

Output product

After more than 10 years of implementing Decision No. 567/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, the investment, production and use of unburnt materials in Nghe An have had positive changes. The market has seen a variety of products such as: cement concrete bricks, solid bricks of standard sizes, 2-hole, 3-hole, 6-hole bricks, hollow bricks, terrazzo bricks, etc. However, according to feedback from unburnt material manufacturing enterprises, the consumption stage has encountered many difficulties.

Inunburnt brick factoryQuoc Anh in Tan Lac town, Quy Chau district, still has quite a few remaining cases.many bricks. The owner shared: This unburnt brick factory invested over 6 billion VND in phase I, with an operating capacity of 10,000 bricks/day, creating jobs for over 20 workers.

All unburnt brick products have certificates of conformity issued by competent authorities and are used in state projects.

However, in recent years, construction projects using state capital have become increasingly rare, while private households have not purchased, leading to the factory having to temporarily stop operations for the past 5 months. The factory currently only retains a small number of workers to protect and maintain the machinery.

Also in the same situation, the Vu Ky unburnt brick factory in Dong Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) is also operating at a standstill. Mr. Pham Xuan Dao - Factory Director said: The factory was invested over 12 billion VND, has been operating for 5 years, with a capacity of 2 million bricks/year. In the past few years, the output has been very difficult, the factory had to lower the price of bricks to 650 VND/brick but it is still very difficult to sell.

Unburnt brick factories in Tan Ky, Nghi Loc, Hoang Mai town, Yen Thanh… are all operating at a low level due to difficult product output, many factories are at a standstill.

Nghia Hoan unburnt brick factory (Tan Ky) operates at a standstill. Photo: Van Truong

According to the report of the Department of Construction, Nghe An province currently has 430 establishments, mainly small-scale private households, whose main products are cement bricks (dashboards).

Of which, there are over 8 medium and small-scale factories producing aggregate bricks, foam concrete bricks, unburnt bricks made from soil using polymerization technology... with a total design capacity of nearly 350 million bricks/year; actual output of nearly 170 million bricks/year.

Currently, the amount of inventory is quite large, factories only dare to run at 1/2-1/3 capacity, many factories even have to stop operating.

Need solution

Although the Government and the Provincial People's Committee have had solutions to promote the development of the non-fired construction materials industry, the results are not really positive. There are many reasons why the production of non-fired construction materials tends to decrease. The biggest obstacle is the people's habits, and investors do not trust the quality of the products.

Unburnt brick products also need to be further improved in both quality and appearance. In fact, the machinery and technology of some factories are still rudimentary; the production process still requires manual labor in arranging molds, finished product trays, and watering to maintain the finished products. The maintenance system is still rudimentary (mainly using water sprinklers). The finished products are heavy, some are still water-permeable; the appearance is not beautiful, not smooth; many products are still chipped and broken...

Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung - Head of the Department of Economics and Construction Materials (Department of Construction) added: Another difficulty that prevents the development of unburnt construction materials is that currently, the standards related to design requirements, construction instructions and acceptance are not specific to each type of unburnt construction material product.

The rapid development of brick kilns in Nghe An has made it difficult to sell unburnt bricks. Photo: Van Truong

Therefore, design consultants have not boldly introduced non-fired building materials into popular construction projects. Product standards, construction regulations, architectural structures, and unit prices of non-fired building materials have not been issued uniformly, causing confusion and inconvenience for construction units.

From the manufacturing enterprises, many opinions say that, in order to develop non-fired materials, localities need to continue to thoroughly implement the Government's policy of gradually reducing the use of traditional fired clay bricks. Regarding mechanisms and policies, management agencies need to have appropriate policies with incentives in the production, exploitation and use of non-fired construction materials.

In particular, businesses need capital support to ensure the capacity to produce high quality products and participate in large construction projects.