The brick factories are north of Phnom Penh, on the highway to Siem Reap. The distinctive bricks that are rebuilding Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, are made here. The factories use wood fired kilns to bake the bricks.

Phnom Penh was devastated by 25 years of war that started in the early 1970’s and political violence that followed the wars, but a UN imposed peace process and subsequent elections have brought a measure of stability Cambodia. A flood of foreign workers (initially relief workers and UN staff but now businessmen) and a seemingly never ending stream of tourists have resulted in a building boom in Phnom Penh that puts even hyperkinetic Bangkok to shame.

And all of the building is being done with the handmade bricks from the factories north of Phnom Penh. Now the forces of supply and demand threaten to slow Phnom Penh’s building boom. The brick factories can’t keep up with demand, prices are going up and speculators are starting to hoard bricks, anticipating that prices (from the artificially created shortage) will continue to go up.

In the first three months of 2008, prices have more than doubled, from $370 (US) per truck load to $850 - $1,000 per truck load. In the nature of things, small builders and contractors are having a hard time competing for bricks with the larger companies. The brick factories are running at full speed and their workers are cranking out the bricks as quickly as the clay dries.

These photos, and others from the brick factories, are available from ZUMA Press.