Unbaked building materials on display on the sidelines of the “Developing new and eco-friendly building material market” seminar in HCM City on December 26 (Photo: VNA)

HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The building materials industry has grown at 8-12 percent in the pastthree years and is expected to maintain good growth next year, a seminar heardin HCM City on December 26.

Pham Van Bac, head of the Ministry of Construction’s construction materialsdepartment, said this year most construction materials manufacturers operatedat full capacity.

Demand for their products was very high, including overseas, with exportsaccounting for 30 percent of total sales of certain materials.

Pham Thiet Hoa, director of the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCMCity (ITPC), said: “The construction materials industry has made remarkableprogress both in terms of quality and quantity. Vietnam, from being a countrythat had to import most construction materials, has become an exporter of somekey items.”

He quoted figures from the General Department of Vietnam Customs that show thecountry exported 1.67 billion USD worth of materials to 120 countries andterritories last year.

Increasing urbanisation and a building boom are set to boost domestic demand inthe coming years, he said.

Bac said construction materials producers have increasingly adopted advancedtechnologies and focused on unbaked building materials to replace burnt-clayproducts in response to Government policies.

The Government has issued legal documents on researching, producing and usingunburnt construction materials to boost the use of environment-friendlybuilding materials, he said.

By 2020, it hopes unbaked construction materials would account for 40-50 percentof the materials used, he said.

Unburnt bricks are made from coal ash discharged by thermal power plants,cement and some other materials, he said, adding that the country’s annualcapacity is seven billion this year, rising to 12.5 billion in 2020.

Tran Ba Viet, vice chairman and general secretary of the Vietnam ConcreteAssociation, said: “Demand for construction materials is very high in Vietnambecause our country is in the development phase.”

Annual demand from the construction sector is 20 billion bricks, expected torise to 42 billion by 2020, but to produce one billion burnt bricks requires1.5 million cubic metres of clay, he said.

Thus, without a move towards non-fired bricks, the environment would facesevere consequences, he said.

Vietnam is still at the starting phase of using unbaked building materials, andauthorities should compile a handbook on choosing suitable products and usingthem in the proper way, he said.

Bac said his ministry is working to complete and issue technical standards andproduction norms for non-fired bricks.

Hoa said the ITPC would promote consumption of new and environment-friendlybuilding materials.

🌊 The seminar on “Developing new and eco-friendly building material market” wasorganised by the ITPC in collaboration with the city Department of Constructionand the management board of the project on “Enhancing the production and use ofunbaked bricks in Vietnam” by the Ministry of Science and Technology.