Brick Industry in China (Part one)
The brick history in China can be traced back to 2,000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty, when the world famous Great Wall was built using a large quantity of burnt clay bricks. Traditionally, solid clay burnt bricks were the main wall materials. China consumes the largest amount of wall materials in the world. The annual out?put of wall materials in China during 2004 was around 900 billion in terms of standard brick. Of this, about 600 billion is solid burnt clay brick, accounting for 65 per cent of the total ; new wall materials ( hollow clay brick, coal spoil brick, fly ash brick, shale brick, and burnt clay lath brick ; and non-burnt brick, including brick, block and slab made from cement, limestone, gypsum or other organic plastering agent ) account for about 35 per cent of the total.
Chinese brick production is characterised by use of extruders for brick forming and the use of Hoffmann and tunnel kilns for ?ring of bricks for medium- and large-scale production. Several types of traditional kilns are used for firing bricks in rural areas on a smaller scale. It is in this segment that VSBK gained popularity and reached its peak during the 1990s. In 1992, con?cerned with the destruction of farm land due to brick-making, the State Council issued policies to strictly limit the use of solid burnt clay brick. The State Tax Bureau issued favourable tax policies to promote the development of new wall materials, which contribute to energy conservation and waste utilisation. The policy to limit use of solid clay fired bricks has led to a decline in VSBK kilns. The Chinese Government has set a basic national policy of developing new energy-saving wall materials and reducing the production of traditional solid burnt clay bricks. Burnt clay brick is allowed when there is easy access to clay resources without destroying farmland.