Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes

Structural brick industry changes in Europe

and India
A retrospective and prospective
comparison
P. Jaboyedoff, Sorane SA, Switzerland, Lausanne, e-
mail: pierre.jaboyedoff@sorane.ch
Consultant to the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation (SDC) in the Energy & Environment
Programme in India
Foundry, Glass, Brick sectors

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Structural changes in Europe

l In about 50 years time

êComplete structural transformation
l Concentration process
êFrom thousands to dozens of units
l Mechanisation
êFrom manual to fully mechanised units
l Main trends in brick products
êFrom plain bricks to hollow products

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Brick industry
Structural
Tunnel kiln introduction RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes in Europe

100

90

80

70
% share of tunnel kilns

60 Germany
France
50 Italy
UK
40

30

20

10

0
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985
Time (Yrs)

Brick industry
Structural
Perforated products example RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes of Belgium

Hollow bricks

Plain bricks

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Brick industry Structural change and RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural concentration, the case of

changes
Switzerland

l From hundreds of factories to less than 30

ê Only 12 groups, further concentration going on
l From manual to full mechanisation
ê Continuous diminution of number of employee
l High investments
ê No more new unit today
l Further concentration
ê Less and larger groups taking control
l Need of flexibility, innovation for smaller units
ê Only chance to survive

Brick industry
Structural
Mid size factory in RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes Switzerland

l 36’000 tons/yr (max

80’000)
ê (approx. equivalent to 120 lakhs
of ISI bricks)
ê Total investment of about 20
Millions US$
l Many different products
ê (turnover approx. 10-20 times
more than equivalent BTK)
l Continuous development of
new products
l 18 employees
ê (approx. 250-500 workers in an
equivalent BTK)

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Brick industry
Structural
Batch clay winning in deep RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes pits, storage for 1-2 yrs

Concession since
more than 1 century
and granted for the
next 50 yrs

Brick industry
Structural
From the clay heap to the RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes crusher

Only one employee

for feeding

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Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Crushing and refining

Only remote control,

no one on site

Brick industry
Structural
Raw material transport by RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes conveyor belts

Only remote control,

no one on site

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Brick industry
Structural
Storing and conveying RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes (about 2-3 weeks)

Only remote control,

no one on site

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Conveying to the extruder

Only remote control,

no one on site

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Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Extruder and dies

Various hollow

Dies

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Automatic stacking

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Brick industry
Structural
Dried bricks on carts and RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes tunnel kilns

Dried
stacked
queing

Tunnel kiln
(partial
view)

Brick
cart

Brick industry
Structural
Automatic control of the RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes process

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Brick industry
Structural
Automatic packing and semi- RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes automatic stacking

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Storage

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Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Brick market in Switzerland

l Try to meet
building code
requirement
without insulation

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Brick market share

Clay

100

90

80 Belgium
70 Denmark
France
60
Germany
50
Greece
40 Italy
30 Netherland

20 UK

10

0
Denmark
Belgium

Netherland
Italy
Germany

UK
France

Greece

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Brick industry
Structural
India RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

changes Baseline scenario

1.00

0.90

0.80

0.70

BTK Fixed Clamp coal

0.60
Clamp bio
BTK Movable BTK move
0.50
BTK fix
HDK
0.40 VSBK&Tunnel

0.30 Clamps (coal)

New technologies
0.20 Tunnel, VSBK, Zig-zag, ..

0.10 Coal (biomass)

0.00
1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural Strict enforcement of environmental

changes regulation, but low technical support

0.9

0.8

0.7

BTK Fixed Clamp coal

0.6
Clamp bio
BTK move
0.5
BTK fix
BTK Movable
HDK
0.4 VSBK&Tunnel

0.3 New technologies

Clamps (coal) Tunnel, VSBK, Zig-zag, ..
0.2

0.1
Clamp (biomass)
0
1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

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Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural Strict enforcement of environmental

changes regulation, but strong technical support

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6 BTK Fixed Clamp coal

Clamp bio
BTK move
0.5
BTK fix
BTK Movable
HDK
0.4 VSBK&Tunnel

0.3 New technologies

Clamps (coal) Tunnel, VSBK, Zig-zag, ..
0.2

0.1
Clamp (biomass)

0
1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Brick industry RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes Coal consumption
45.0

40.0

35.0

30.0
Mio tons of coal

BAU
25.0
Baseline
ScenarioIII
20.0 ScenarioIV

15.0

10.0

5.0

0.0
1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

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Brick industry

Conclusions
RATIONALISATIONENERGETIQUE

Structural
changes

l Structural change did take about 50 years

to complete in Europe
l How long will it take in India ?
êNobody has an answer
êGoverning factors
êEnvironmental regulations
êMarket demand for different products (hollow bricks, other
materials)
êImprovement of labour conditions (increasing labour cost
and social conditions)
êIndustry has to think about it now

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