Kim Anh Co., Ltd was established in 2003 as private own and is located in Nghe An province. Kim Anh produce steel ingot to supply to domestic construction purposes in Nghe An province and nearby provinces. The company produces over 3024 tons of steel ingot per year. Its total employees is 80.

Before applying cleaner production, the company often had to face the problem of air emission and noise pollutions. Gas exhaust derived from processes of melting and refining contained dust, lead with CO2, SO2 exceeding permitted levels. Dust in producing areas was  2.5 – 2.7 times higher than the standard of hygiene and occupational safety. Noise exposed continuously in 8 hours exceeded 1.05 – 1.07 times in comparison with Vietnamese Standards. In 2008, the company received complaining document from residents in Hong Thinh village, Dien Hong Commune, Dien Chau District about gas exhaust and dust pollutions in the residential area.

Besides, before applying cleaner production, the company had to face the problems of occupational health safety. Workers had to do hard work: carrying steel scraps up to the working floor to input material, pouring melting steel from hand ladles into casting moulds, liquid steel spilling at high temperature of 1,600 0C; High noise level in workplace (90dBA), and high dust concentration in workplace (10-11mg/m3), workers do not use personal protection equipment. To solve these problems the company accessed the component Cleaner Production in Industries of Ministry of Industry and Trade.

With the support from Ministry of Industry and Trade, in October 2008, the company started to carry out the cleaner production assessment. In stage 1 (from October 2008 to December 2009), the company established cleaner production team led by Mr. Chu Quang Hung -  Director of the company– and other 3 members to carry out the cleaner production assessment on the whole of the starch production line.  The assessment of the production lines, the verification of waste streams, the balance of materials and energy were worked out. Then all data collected were used for analyzing to find out the cleaner production options for each production process.

After the assessment and the determination of improving solution options, the company conducted 19 solution options which required low cost and no cos with the total investment of 169 million dong. Financial benefit received in 2009 was 966 million dong. In stage 2 (January 2010),  the company invested 8.4 billion dong to develop solutions to thoroughly solve the environmental problems. The solutions included: constructing cement ground for material store to prevent soil and rocks from mingling into the material, installing scarp pressure machine with capacity big enough for 3 sets of furnaces (6 furnaces), replacing 3 pairs of 1-ton furnaces by 1 pair of 5-ton furnaces, installing continuous casting system, and installing dust collection and treatment system.

Benefits brought in to the company from cleaner production are briefly described as follows: