Viglacera Ha Long JSC, a unit of Glass and Ceramic for Construction Corporation (Viglacera) under the Ministry of Construction, currently under the Housing and Urban Development Holdings, is the former Ha Long Brick Factory established in 1978 with the Poland-funded circular kiln technology.

In their first days, with monotonous production and low productivity, the working and living conditions of staff members had many difficulties. Since 1995, under the direct leadership of Viglacera with strict management of the management board, the company had gradually overcome difficulties. The important impacts were continuous technological innovation, resource and energy saving, intensive investment and sustainable production development.

In 1995, Ha Long Brick factory stopped operating because the circular kiln technology was obsolescent. The company switched to operate Tieu Giao Brick factory with tunnel furnace technology granted by Bulgaria. With two tunnel furnaces using dust coal, work conditions and product quality were improved but still at a low level. The company decided to dismantle Ha Long Brick Factory to try the new technology: dry crushing – plastic extruding – quick drying to produce high quality tile.

In October, 2002, the production line No 1 of Gieng Day Cotto Brick Factory was put into operation with the capacity of one million m2 of 300 x 12 tiles per year and the transferred technology from the Italian Sacmi. In 2004, the production line No 2 was installed to raise the designed capacity to two million square metres per year. The company also took over Binh Duong Cotto Brick Factory under Xuan Hoa Ceramic company, a unit of Viglacera, continued to invest in Hoanh Bo Brick Factory with the designed capacity of 80 million QTC bricks per year using tunnel drying and burning technology with fuel from hot coal gasification (the first tunnel factory to use this technology).

To take full advantage of high quality clay resources in Quang Ninh, in 2006 and 2007, the company removed two production lines from Binh Duong Cotto brick factory to Gieng Day Cotto brick factory, which raised the total designed capacity to 4 million m2 per year.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Mau, General Director of the company, since switching production and business, the company had always attached importance to technological innovation. At Gieng Day Cotto brick factory, based on Sacmi’s technology, the company proposed some effective solutions like: improving drying-heating fuel, using cool gasified coal (Chinese technology) instead of gas to heat products to reduce fuel costs by 50%; recovering exhaust from roll bar furnaces to dry products instead of burning fuel in 4-storey ovens to reduce one third of needed coal (this idea won the first prize at the 10th National Competition for Science and Technology 2010); extending roll bar furnaces along with shortening heating process to increase productivity and quality; using dust coals which were pressed into stone coals to replace 50% of pit coals in biogas furnaces to reduce fuel costs.

At Tieu Giao and Hoanh Bo factory, some technological solutions to improve the heating system such as: using FO oil instead of dust coals for tunnel furnaces, recovering exhaust from tunnel furnaces, mechanizing transportation, improving the cooling fan system… had gradually increased productivity and machine efficiency, reduced fuel consumption, and stabilized product quality.

Along with technical innovations, the company claimed that seeking clay resources, purchasing clay from leveling projects, increasing the reserves of raw materials for factories played the most important role. Before excavating a mine, the company always explored the reserves, analyzed samples, made an optimal exploitation plan, also monitored and controlled carefully the process of excavation, transportation, classification right at the material ground and then implemented drying, mixing, and stirring.

As the first clay producer of Vietnam to apply ISO 9001:200 quality management system, in recent years, the company had always concentrated on creating a clean work environment and protecting environment at facilities. At factories, along with recovering exhaust heat from furnaces and applying hot coal gasification technology, using FO oil to heat products also reduced the emissions.

Besides, the trees and landscape around factories and offices of the company were always taken cared of, watered and sprayed to create the humidity for the whole transportation route. An injection system was installed for the wagon line to cool and reduce dust emissions during the unloading process. Moreover, the company also built a waste container system, utilized waste oil to maintain wagon wheels, fully exploited clay mines were all reverted to build houses for workers, plant trees or contain rain water to serve seafood production and processing.

Synchronous solutions had brought about big economic benefits, the average price of products is reduced by VND2,000 to 13,500 per kilogram. The revenue of 2009 significantly increased to VND1,000 billion, the life of staff members improved, the average per capita income reached VND4,180,000 per month.

In the 2010 plan passed by the shareholders’ meeting, though the revenue was not planned to increase, the profit was planned to raise by 53%, to more than VND110 billion, the earning per share to reach VND12,200, the lowest dividend to be 40%. In 2010, Viglacera Ha Long has invested in factories to develop sustainably with a 16 category investment plan for Tieu Giao factory, 7 projects for Gieng Day Cotto brick factory and 9 projects for Hoanh Bo brick factory.

By Minh Duc