2000-ton Grain Silo Project for Feed Mill — Vietnam

Project Summary

The challenge: A Vietnamese medium-sized feed mill specializing in poultry and livestock feed production for regional farms faced persistent operational challenges that directly impacted product quality, production consistency, and profitability. The facility relied on temporary open-air and semi-enclosed grain warehouses to store its primary raw materials—corn and soybean meal—leaving thousands of tonnes of grain exposed to the elements year-round. Vietnam's tropical climate brought intense seasonal rainfall, with humidity levels regularly exceeding 85% and temperatures ranging from 25°C to 38°C during peak months. These conditions created a perfect storm for grain spoilage: moisture ingress led to mold growth, mycotoxin development, insect infestation, and spontaneous heating within stored grain masses. The client reported spoilage rates as high as 8–12% of total inventory during the wet season, representing significant financial loss and forcing the mill to reject entire batches of contaminated raw material. Beyond spoilage, the temporary warehouse setup made it impossible to store different grain varieties separately. Corn and soybean meal were often commingled or stored in close proximity, leading to cross-contamination and inconsistent feed formulations. The mill's nutritionists struggled to maintain precise feed ratios, which affected the nutritional consistency of finished feed products delivered to regional poultry and livestock farms. Additionally, the lack of proper storage infrastructure meant the mill could only maintain a few days of raw material inventory at any given time, making it entirely dependent on just-in-time deliveries from suppliers. Any disruption in the supply chain—whether from transportation delays, supplier shortages, or weather-related road closures—forced costly production stoppages. The client estimated that unplanned downtime occurred 3–5 times per month, each incident lasting 1–3 days, severely limiting the mill's output capacity and its ability to fulfill contracts with growing regional demand.

Our solution: Manxing's engineering team conducted a comprehensive site assessment and raw material analysis to design a storage system tailored to the client's specific operational requirements and Vietnam's demanding tropical environment. The solution centered on four hopper-bottom galvanized steel silos, each with a 500-tonne capacity, delivering a total storage volume of 2,000 tonnes. Each silo was constructed using high-strength 275g/m² zinc-coated galvanized steel sheets with a minimum yield strength of 350 MPa, providing exceptional corrosion resistance against the high-humidity coastal atmosphere while maintaining structural integrity under full grain load. The hopper-bottom configuration, featuring a 60-degree cone angle, was specifically selected to enable clean gravity discharge of both free-flowing corn and the more cohesive soybean meal, eliminating bridging and rat-holing issues that plague flat-bottom silos when handling diverse material characteristics. The material handling system was engineered as a fully integrated circuit connecting intake, storage, and production. Twin bucket elevators with a capacity of 50 tonnes per hour handle vertical grain transport, while heavy-duty chain conveyors with a rated capacity of 40 tonnes per hour distribute grain horizontally between silos and feed directly into the production line. A dedicated grain cleaning station, equipped with a rotary separator and destoner, removes foreign material, broken kernels, and impurities before grain enters storage, ensuring only clean, high-quality raw material reaches the silos. The intake system is designed to process up to 60 tonnes per hour, allowing the mill to receive and unload multiple trucks simultaneously during peak harvest periods. Critical to the system's performance in Vietnam's tropical climate is the integrated aeration and environmental control package. Each silo is fitted with a high-volume centrifugal aeration fan delivering 15 cubic meters per minute per silo, pushing ambient air through a network of perforated floor ducts to maintain uniform temperature and moisture levels throughout the grain mass. A sophisticated temperature monitoring system, with thermocouple cables installed at three vertical levels (top, middle, and bottom) in each silo, provides real-time data to the central control panel, alerting operators to any thermal anomalies that could indicate spoilage onset. Enhanced sealing measures—including silicone-sealed bolted joints, pressure-relief valves, and hermetic discharge gates—prevent moisture migration into the silo headspace and grain mass during periods of extreme humidity and monsoon rainfall. The silo layout was optimized for the client's available footprint, with four silos arranged in a linear configuration that allows future expansion without disrupting existing operations. The system's modular design philosophy means additional silos can be seamlessly integrated into the existing conveying and monitoring infrastructure, providing a scalable growth path as the mill's production capacity increases.

The outcome: Since commissioning the Manxing silo storage system, the feed mill has achieved a complete transformation in raw material management and production reliability. The facility now maintains 3–4 weeks of continuous grain inventory, equivalent to approximately 1,800–2,000 tonnes of corn and soybean meal, effectively eliminating the supply disruptions that previously plagued operations. Production downtime caused by raw material shortages has been reduced from 3–5 incidents per month to virtually zero, enabling the mill to operate at consistent capacity and meet all delivery commitments to regional farms on schedule. Grain quality preservation has improved dramatically. The integrated aeration system, combined with continuous temperature monitoring, maintains grain temperatures within the safe storage range of 15–25°C even during Vietnam's hottest months, preventing the moisture migration and condensation cycles that previously caused spoilage. Post-commissioning audits confirmed that grain spoilage rates have dropped from 8–12% to less than 1.5% annually, representing a direct cost saving of tens of thousands of dollars per year in preserved inventory value. The separate storage capability for corn and soybean meal has enabled precise batch control and consistent feed formulation, improving the nutritional reliability of finished feed products and strengthening the mill's reputation among regional livestock and poultry producers. Operational efficiency has increased substantially through the automated conveying system, which delivers grain directly from any of the four silos to the production line on demand. Manual grain handling labor requirements have been reduced by approximately 60%, and the cleaning system ensures that only high-quality, contaminant-free grain enters production. The client has confirmed that the system's performance has exceeded expectations and has already initiated discussions with Manxing to expand the facility with additional silos to support a planned 40% increase in feed production capacity over the next two years.

Project at a Glance

Equipment Provided

Grain Bins

Handling Equipment

Grain Cleaning & Grading

Aeration & Monitoring

Project Gallery

Project Timeline

Results

• ✓ Since commissioning the Manxing silo storage system, the feed mill has achieved a complete transformation in raw material management and production reliability. The facility now maintains 3–4 weeks of continuous grain inventory, equivalent to approximately 1,800–2,000 tonnes of corn and soybean meal, effectively eliminating the supply disruptions that previously plagued operations. Production downtime caused by raw material shortages has been reduced from 3–5 incidents per month to virtually zero, enabling the mill to operate at consistent capacity and meet all delivery commitments to regional farms on schedule. Grain quality preservation has improved dramatically. The integrated aeration system, combined with continuous temperature monitoring, maintains grain temperatures within the safe storage range of 15–25°C even during Vietnam's hottest months, preventing the moisture migration and condensation cycles that previously caused spoilage. Post-commissioning audits confirmed that grain spoilage rates have dropped from 8–12% to less than 1.5% annually, representing a direct cost saving of tens of thousands of dollars per year in preserved inventory value. The separate storage capability for corn and soybean meal has enabled precise batch control and consistent feed formulation, improving the nutritional reliability of finished feed products and strengthening the mill's reputation among regional livestock and poultry producers. Operational efficiency has increased substantially through the automated conveying system, which delivers grain directly from any of the four silos to the production line on demand. Manual grain handling labor requirements have been reduced by approximately 60%, and the cleaning system ensures that only high-quality, contaminant-free grain enters production. The client has confirmed that the system's performance has exceeded expectations and has already initiated discussions with Manxing to expand the facility with additional silos to support a planned 40% increase in feed production capacity over the next two years.
• ✓ Delivered on schedule with full commissioning
• ✓ 2,000 tonnes total storage capacity

"ManXing's hopper silos solved our rainy season storage problems. We no longer worry about grain quality deterioration. The separate silo design for corn and soybean meal gives us the flexibility we need for our feed recipes. Planning to add more silos next year."

General Director — Vietnamese Feed Processing Company

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