Planning Construction Material Industry

Developing the construction material industry into a major economic segment to meet domestic and export demand, while helping reduce energy use and protect the environment is vital, said Dang Xuan Dinh, the head of the Construction Material Development Planning Department of the Ministry of Construction.

As a key segment of the Vietnamese economy, the construction material industry has great potential for development since there is a wealth of material sources and an increasing demand for construction materials. However, the industry greatly affects the environment and consumes large amounts of energy. With these considerations, the sector development strategy through to 2020 is to boost production, protect the environment and reduce energy consumption.

Production and environment protection

For sustainable and effective production, environmental protection is a prime development goal until 2020. Dinh said that because the industry exploits material deposits near tourist resorts and places of interest, it is very important to ensure sufficient production, while simultaneously protecting the environment. Dinh said that facilities producing construction materials such as cement and construction stone must restore the environment and treat the ground at project sites after every phase of the project or after the project is completed. Old projects near places of interest must be stopped meaning that new projects of this kind will be located far from places of interest and national highways so as not to affect the environment and the landscape. In addition, for the protection and sustainable development of material sources, several sectors such as construction and sand/stone must work more efficiently. Various kinds of sand made from construction stone will be prioritized to avoid future depletion of natural sand sources. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the export of sand in the central region and the south to make sure that it will not damage the environment.

The industry will reorganize manual brick production facilities and shift to using tunnel kilns or other advanced technology to reduce environmental pollution. Meanwhile, it is important to encourage businesses, producers and consumers to use non-baked bricks, a way to reduce ground use, CO2 (carbonic gas) emissions and investment cost. The industry expects that non-baked bricks will account for 20-25 percent of bricks in use by 2015 and 30-40 percent in 2020.

Reducing energy consumption

Apart from environmental protection, reducing energy consumption is a central part of the sector development plan until 2020. Nguyen Trung Hoa, the head of the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Construction, said that the sector will try to reduce 5-7 percent of energy consumption by 2020. For this to happen, new investment projects must meet energy consumption requirements. Specifically, new ceramic tile production facilities must use 0.88 kg of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) per sq.m of tiles or less, or 1.07 kg of diesel oil per sq.m of tiles or less, or 2.58 kWh per sq.m of tiles or less.

New sanitary ceramic ware production facilities must consume 0.275 kg of LPG per kg of ceramic ware or less, or 0.72 kg of diesel oil per kg of ceramic ware or less, or 0.55kWh per kg of ceramic ware or less.

Construction glass production facilities in particular must consume 200 kg of FO (Fuel Oil) per tonne of products or less, or 0.5 kg of DO (Diesel Oil) per tonne of products or less, or 100kWh per tonne of products or less.

It is expected that the sector will produce 101-111 million tonnes of cement, 400-428 million sq.m of ceramic tiles, 19-23 million sanitary ware units, 196-202 million sq.m of construction glass, 41-43 billion pieces of bricks and tiles, 220-228 million sq.m of roofing materials, 197-211 cu.m of construction stone and 182-197 million cu.m of construction sand in 2020.

The sector also hopes to export about 20 percent of construction glass in 2010, 25 percent in 2011-2015 and 30 percent in 2016-2020.

Regarding facing tiles and sanitary ceramic ware, exports will account for about 20 percent of total production in 2010, 25 percent in 2011-2015 and 30 percent in 2016-2020./.

VEN

Tags: Vietnam Construction, Vietnam construction material industry