Visiting Thanh Hoa Province, one will be amazed at the large and modern facility of Nghi Son Cement Plant. Standing on the heat-resistant tower, 70m high, people will see huge mountains and an immense sea. Looking to the north they will see Hoang Mai Limestone Mountain, which contains over 200 million tonnes of the resources needed for the corporation to ensure long-term production.
Founded on April 11, 1995, Nghi Son Cement Corporation is a joint-venture between Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem) and two multi-national corporations of Japan, Taiheyo Cement - TCC and Mitsubishi Material - MMC. In July 2000, the Corporation officially put into operation its first production line in Nghi Son Cement Plant with a capacity of 2.15 million tones/year. It includes a specialized system of multi-functional ports and bridges to facilitate 35,000 tonne ships to transport materials and products. It also has a distribution terminal in Ho Chi Minh City with a capacity of 1.4 million tonnes/year
 

Since its early operation, the plant has applied advanced technology to producing cement. Limestone is dug and transported from Hoang Mai Mountain in Nghe An Province to the plant by a system of conveyor belts, 12km long, that helps lower the transport expenditure. The production lines are automatically controlled via a system of computers.
Taking us to visit the plant, engineer Pham Viet Mao said that thanks to bringing into full play the advantage of Nghi Son deep-water port, Nghi Son Cement Plant has a great ability to put materials in its storehouses and transport products for sale. All this helps minimize the production cost, decrease the product’s price, increase competitiveness and bring about a high profit.
To increase the production capacity and meet the increasing demand of the market, in 2007 the investors decided to install a second production line with equipment meeting the standards of G7 countries. This has increased the total capacity to 4.3 million tonnes of cement/year, and a distribution terminal in Khanh Hoa Province has been added.
Thanks to its high-quality material resource and modern technology, the plant’s PCB40 mixed cement was granted the certificate of ISO 9001-2000; ISO 9001-2008 and ISO 14001-2004. Therefore, the plant’s product has been used for the construction of many important national projects, including Bai Chay Bridge (Quang Ninh Province), Can Tho Bridge (Can Tho Province), Sai Gon – Trung Luong Highway, East-West Highway (Ho Chi Minh City), making a contribution to the cause of national industrialization and modernization.
Besides investment in production lines, the plant also pays much attention to environmental protection. Every three months, the plant collects and analyses samples of exhaust fumes. The results always meet the requirements set forth by the World Bank, the International Finance Company and relevant Vietnamese bodies.
Evaluating this issue, both Japanese and Vietnamese experts said that the advanced technology of the plant completely meets the highest requirements in terms of ensuring the safety of the environment, particularly where exhaust fumes are concerned.
After 15 years of operation, Nghi Son Cement Plant has won many important awards, such as the “Golden Dragon” (2005); the Golden Prize for National Quality (2009), Vietnam’s Golden FDI (2009) and the Labour Medal, 2nd class.
In the future, the plant is expected to become the number one cement producer and distributor in Vietnam.