We have seen countless stories of brick factories producing bricks but this is the first time we’ve seen a brick production plant.
A new research paper from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) shows that the technology behind these factories has been around for decades, but the Australian brickmaking industry hasn’t seen the kind of production that is happening now.
The research shows that bricks produced at brick factories can be manufactured to a higher quality than they can from the same bricks manufactured at a factory producing bricks for the consumer.
The paper was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Economic Modelling.
The UNSW team looked at brick manufacturing data from 18 countries and compared this data to a database of bricks produced from the UK and the United States, using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
It found that the bricks used in Australian brick production are actually less expensive to produce, are more durable, and require fewer resources than bricks produced elsewhere.
This is despite the fact that Australian brickmakers can’t compete in terms of the quality of their bricks.
The researchers also looked at whether the Australian bricks produced in brick factories have a higher chance of survival than the same brick made from bricks manufactured in brick making facilities.
They found that bricks that were produced at Australian brick factories had a greater chance of surviving when the bricks were recycled.
The team then looked at the economic impact of brick production on the Australian economy, and found that while brick factories may be producing bricks at a lower quality, they are still contributing to the economy in a significant way.
“There is a strong economic incentive to use brick as a building material and as a production medium, and therefore, the brick manufacturing industry has a significant role to play in providing the bricks that Australians need,” said lead author, Dr John Williams, from the School of Industrial Economics and Business.
“If the Australian government were to introduce a national standard for bricks, then this could be a real boon to the Australian manufacturing industry.”
In a paper published earlier this year, Williams and co-author, Professor James Higginson, from UNSW, looked at how bricks were made in brick-manufacturing facilities in Australia.
Their research found that brick factories are often under-regulated and that brickmakers often get paid less for the same work.
The study found that in some industries, bricks were used in bricks that cost more, so this means brick makers are under-compensated for their labour.
However, in other industries, the bricks are made by workers who have to be paid less, so brick makers have a much higher pay packet.
The Australian Bureau Of Statistics also analysed the costs and benefits of brick manufacturing, and it found that a brick made in a brick making facility is less expensive than one made at a brickmaking facility.
The bricks made at brick-makers are typically less durable than those made at the same factory producing other goods.
The brickmakers also have less money to spend on marketing and advertising, so they have to sell bricks that they can use elsewhere, and these bricks are less valuable than the bricks produced locally.
“In many industries, brickmakers are paid much less than brickmakers who make other goods,” said Williams.
“The bricks made in Australian bricks are also less likely to survive in the long term than the brickmakers making other goods.”
The study also found that there is a large gap between the quality and durability of Australian bricks and the quality produced by Australian brick makers.
“We find that the Australian production of bricks has been relatively poor, with the bricks in the brickmaking facilities producing only average quality bricks,” said Higgison.
“When we look at brick making in Australia, there is also a lot of variation in quality and resilience in brickmaking.”
Williams said that although brickmaking in Australia has seen a rise in the number of brick plants since the early 1990s, the rate of growth in brick production has slowed.
“Bricks are a relatively new product that has not yet entered the Australian market, and we do not see brick factories opening in Australia at a rate comparable to that of brickmaking,” he said.
“It is possible that brick-maker growth is slowing due to competition from brickmakers in other countries, but this does not necessarily mean that the supply of bricks will be lower than in other markets.”
The research is the latest in a series of papers that have examined the potential economic benefits of building brick factories, but it is the most comprehensive of its kind to date.
Williams said brickmaking could play a role in helping to drive innovation in Australian manufacturing.
“This is not a new idea and brick-factory technologies have been around since at least the mid-1970s,” he explained.
“
A high quality brick is also very durable and can be used to make bricks that can be