Iron-casting in Thanh Phu Commune, Vinh Cuu District: looking for conditions to develop in the integration age.

     Every the second of the second Lunar month year-on-year, craftsmen in the village all gathered in the ancestor worship hall of Dao Van Tham for funeral repast .Iron-casting in Thanh Phu commune(previously named Binh Thach village, Phuoc Vinh Ha canton) was inherited from their forefather with family name Dao. At first, he had only one bellow to blow wind to the furnace, one blast furnace, some clay moulds, charcoal-the raw material for iron-casting. The products can be ploughshares, spade blades, pots, pans, etc.. Gradually, the trade has developed more and more. There have been periods of time when number of blast furnaces increased to 30 in villages such as Binh Thach, Tan Phong, Binh Thanh, Binh Loi, Binh Y,  etc.. After April 30th, 1975, producing techniques at the blast furnaces have been improved. To increase the productivity and product quality, many furnace owners here went to Sai Gon to learn more techniques. They improved and rebuilt bellows to blow wind to the furnace with new techniques in order to produce iron –castings accessories for industrial establishments.

At present, Thanh Phu commune has 9 iron-casting establishments, most of which are hereditary and are also considered to be the main income of a big part of inhabitants here for

generations. Investment capital for  these 9 establishments were about 2 billion VND, supplying jobs for approximately 200 labors with earnings from 1.8 million VND to 1.8 million VND per month. The turnover of iron-casting increased year-on-year; particularly, the turnover in 2005 was 20 billion VND thanks to purchase order. The iron-casting products usually are pulleys in rice-husking machines, spare parts for brick pressing machines, diesel engines, water pumps, cast-iron pinions, bridge axes,.. Most of them are for the purchase orders from agricultural machinery companies, namely Vikyno , Vinappro, Thanh Nhan export company, hi-tech, companies,...Besides, iron-casting products are also purchased much in Cho Lon market, Ho Chi Minh City. According to the customers’ assessment, those products are qualified.

“Currently, iron-casting  products delivered according to the purchase orders are crude products. If wanting to use them, we need the fully-made phase through mechanical process ,and then the products will have high value in use, the price of the products as well as profits for enterprises will be high. Raw iron-casting products ordered are usually sold with  compelled price and get low profit. Therefore, to remain the trade village, it is necessary for us to consider investment in innovating the technology, improve techniques in the direction of closed process and expand space for manufacturing, improve skills ,provide laborers with stable jobs as well as raise labor’s income,” said Le Van Ut-Head of Trong Nghia machinery and commercial service co-operative.

With the orientation of integration, in order to preserve and remain traditional iron-casting village and make advantage for those trade villages to develop, the district and commune administrative mobilized blast furnaces owners to set up Trong Nghia machinery and commercial service cooperative. Since cooperative’s members all have iron-casting establishments at home currently, the cooperative orientates to remain reality to change into a system of iron-casting trade village in order to make raw products to supply to cooperative that will make complete products to supply to partners. Until now, the cooperative consists 7 members with the early charter capital of 700 million VND. The cooperative are going to extend manufacturing area, invest more in equipments such as lathe machines, shot blasting machines, drills as well as train more engineers, managers,…Le Van Ut also said that advantage at present was traditional commodities and skilled labors meeting demands of market. The collective machinery cooperative set up will offer to lathe, cast and fully blade products . The selling price and profits  will be higher, creating more favorable environment for the cooperative’s environment.

While traditional small-scale industry commodities have faced a lot of difficulty in the process of integration, Iron-Casting village of Thach Phu commune, Vinh Cuu district have looked for their new conditions. Change of the trade village in the direction of collective business has opened a lot of prospects to the development of traditional trade in the local.

Reported by Le Lan ,translated by THKC.