Non-fired brick manufacturers: Still facing difficulties in sales.
Non-fired bricks are expected to be a green, environmentally friendly building material that reduces emissions, but businesses producing this material are facing considerable difficulties in selling their products.
 |
| Despite the many advantages of unburnt bricks, the consumption of this product still faces many difficulties. |
It's not easy to change user habits.
In today's construction materials market, it's easy to find products such as: cement-based aggregate concrete bricks; autoclaved and non-autoclaved aerated concrete bricks; foamed concrete bricks; extruded hollow concrete slabs, autoclaved aerated concrete wall panels, etc. These are non-fired products that do not use agricultural land, thus not negatively impacting agricultural land area. Using large-sized non-fired bricks also helps speed up construction progress, instead of using small individual bricks as in the old method.
Despite its advantages, this product still faces many difficulties in the market. According to the owner of a factory specializing in the production of non-fired bricks in Long Vinh commune, Chau Thanh district, Tay Ninh province, after several years of production and distribution, the business has encountered many challenges. People are not very fond of this type of brick; few households use non-fired bricks for construction. Perhaps large block bricks are used for building fences or terrazzo tiles are used for paving patios.
Furthermore, using unburnt bricks correctly requires skilled and knowledgeable builders. However, most contractors and builders in the province are accustomed to using traditional bricks, leading to mistakes, substandard construction quality, water leaks, cracks, and other problems, which they then blame on the poor quality of unburnt bricks. As a result, unburnt bricks are gradually losing favor in the eyes of many people.
On December 23, 2021, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 2171/QD-TTg approving the Program for the Development of Non-fired Building Materials in Vietnam until 2030. The program aims to promote the production and use of non-fired building materials to partially replace fired clay bricks, reaching a rate of 35-40% by 2025 and 40-45% by 2030 of the total building materials used, ensuring compliance with regulations on the use of non-fired building materials in construction projects.
The program also outlines seven implementation solutions: improving institutions and policies; scientific and technological solutions; perfecting standards, regulations, and economic-technical norms related to non-fired building materials; promoting the use of non-fired building materials; training and international cooperation; information and communication; and monitoring, inspection, and auditing of quality management and the use of non-fired building materials.
"Changing people's building material habits is very difficult. Currently, even the best non-fired bricks are only used for auxiliary construction," said the owner of a factory in Tay Ninh.
For example, Dai Dung Green Materials Joint Stock Company, in order to compete with other businesses, boldly invested in a modern production line to improve product quality, thus securing a fairly stable market. However, the company's products are also facing many difficulties in sales.
According to Mr. Trinh Nhien, Director of Dai Dung Green Building Materials Joint Stock Company, non-fired bricks are currently only supplied to state-funded construction projects and are not widely used in private projects due to people's habits and higher prices compared to traditional fired clay bricks. In addition, difficulties such as shortages of inputs and continuously rising prices of construction materials also affect the production costs of non-fired brick manufacturers.
The overall picture needs to be considered.
“To overcome current difficulties, we are focusing on expanding our product distribution market to neighboring provinces of Ho Chi Minh City such as Long An, Binh Duong, Dong Nai… because the potential of the provincial market is still very large, with many office buildings and infrastructure projects being strongly developed,” shared the Director of Dai Dung Green Materials Joint Stock Company.
From a professional perspective, Dr. Thai Duy Sam, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Building Materials, stated that as of 2023, the country had 2,500 non-fired brick production facilities, with a total designed capacity of 15 billion standard bricks per year, but consumption was very slow and had seriously declined.
Specifically, while consumption of non-fired bricks reached 4.8 billion in 2019, it is estimated to reach only 2.8 billion in 2023. This has forced many manufacturing businesses to temporarily suspend operations, with others operating at only 30-50% capacity. Furthermore, while Vietnam had 12 autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) factories since 2010, only 4 remain operational today.
According to Mr. Thai Duy Sam, to more strongly promote green, environmentally friendly, and energy-saving materials, Vietnam needs to pay attention to the overall field of green materials production. Specifically, it is necessary to continue reviewing, amending, and supplementing policies to promote the production and use of low-emission and energy-efficient building materials.
Accordingly, policies supporting businesses producing green building materials in terms of investment, finance, taxes, etc., contribute to reducing product costs; policies providing incentives for construction projects using green building materials are also necessary. At the same time, there must be sanctions to handle cases of violations of the issued guidelines, mechanisms, and policies.
Comment (0)