The Viglacera Ha Long Joint Stock Company, a unit under the Vietnam Glass and Ceramic for Construction Corporation (Viglacera) that was formerly put under the management of the Ministry of Construction, now the Vietnam Housing and Urban Development Group, was grown from the Ha Long Brick Factory which was established in 1978 and employed Poland-backed ring-furnace technology.

In the initial period, the laborers had to work in poor conditions with low labor efficiency. The production was monotonous. From 1995, with direct guidance from Viglacera and strong determination by the management, the company overcame a mountain of difficulties, and more importantly it made constant efforts to improve technology, save energy and natural resources, make in-depth investment into production striving for a sustainable development.

The Ha Long Brick Factory had to halt production in 1995 due to using the outmoded ring-furnace technology. The company shifted into running the Tieu Giao Brick Factory that employed Bulgaria-backed tunnel kiln technology with improved production conditions and product quality. However, brick items still had low quality grade. The company then decided to demolish the Ha Long Brick Factory and invested in a new one with a cutting-edge technology that would allow it to turn out top-grade facing tiles.

The first production line at the Gieng Day Cotto Brick Factory was put into operation in October 2002 with a capacity of one million square meters of tiles per year employing a state-of-the art technology provided by Sacmi Group (Italy). In 2004, the second production line was installed, bringing the total designed capacity to two million square meters per year, in the meantime the company took over the Binh Duong Cotto Brick Factory, a unit under the Xuan Hoa Construction Ceramic Company (also a Viglacera member). Besides, efforts were made to build the Hoanh Bo Brick Factory with an annual capacity of 80 million bricks employing coal gasifier tunnel-kiln technology (the first tunnel-kiln factory in Vietnam using the technology).

To make the most of the high quality clay deposit in Quang Ninh, in 2006 and 2007 the company removed the two production lines from the Binh Duong brick factory to the Gieng Day Cotto Brick Factory to raise the production to a total four million square meters a year.

The company general director Nguyen Quang Mau said that since the inception the company paid due heed to technical innovations. At the Gieng Day Cotto Brick Factory the company had applied a number of initiatives based on the Sacmi technology.

Accordingly, to slash half of the fuel expense the company used Chinese coal gasifier technology in baking bricks instead of using gas. The gas emissions were procured to dry raw bricks instead of heating the four-tier drying oven, saving one third of the coal volume. (The initiative won the first prize at the tenth National Scientific and Technical Competition in 2010). Similarly, the baking oven was extended and the drying-baking process was shortened to better the productivity and product quality.

At the Tieu Giao and Hoanh Bo brick factories, technical initiatives were used to improve baking and burning process such as using FO oil instead of coal dust at tunnel kilns, procuring tunnel kiln gas emissions, mechanizing product transport and improving ventilation system. These all have resulted in higher labor and machine efficiency, reduced fuel consumption and stabilized product quality.

Besides technical innovations, the company has enriched clay sources at factories to ensure stable production. It bought clay from site clearance projects to increase material reserves for factories. At clay deposits, before extraction the company made efforts to survey the clay capacity, analyze samples, work out optical extraction plans, in the meantime effectively oversee extraction, transport and product classification right at the material site.

To save natural resources, the company has improved product designs to lower the material volume while still ensuring quality and usability (producing coconut-leaf tiles weighing 1.6kg instead of 2kg/piece by creating a ditch in the tile; lowering the floor tile weight from 3kg to 2.5kg etc.). Steps were taken to make the most of substandard bricks which were then grinded into a kind of powder to serve as a production material.

The company is the first business among Vietnamese terracotta producers applying internationally recognized quality management system following ISO 9001:2000 standards. In the past couples of years, the company has paid particular attention to creating a fresh working environment and protecting the environment at production factories. At these factories, alongside procuring baking oven gas emissions and putting into use the coal gasifier technology FO oil is used in baking bricks with a view to reducing gas emissions to the environment.

Besides, due attention was paid to preserving green trees and natural landscapes in areas surrounding the company head office and production factories. In the meantime, to reduce haze and dust in the unloading process the company has invested in a water spray system at wagon lanes. Similarly, the company has created a waste tank system, used waste oil to maintain wagon wheels, built worker housings, grown vegetables or contained rain-water in areas that were formerly clay deposits.

These synchronous solutions brought in practical results. The product price was reduced from VND2,000 to VND13,500/kg. Significantly, 2009 revenue amounted to VND1 trillion and per laborer average income was around VND4.2 million per month.

In 2010 development plan that was approved at the stockholder conference, the company is set to achieve profits of more than VND110 billion, 53 percent more year on year and the earning-per-share (EPS) of more than VND12,200 and dividend of at least 40 percent. In 2010, Viglacera Ha Long will inject more capital into existing factories to boost production: 16 project items at the Tieu Giao Brick Factory, seven projects at the Gieng Day Cotto and nine projects at the Hoanh Bo brick factories.

By Nhan Dan