Unlike tile or sanitary ware, aluminum glazing is not a catalog product — every window, door and curtain-wall panel is fabricated to your project's shop drawings. That is exactly why Vietnam has become a serious sourcing answer for it: fabrication is labour, and Vietnamese fabrication labour costs a fraction of what the same cutting, crimping, gasketing and glazing work costs in Australia, the US or Europe — while the inputs (billet, hardware, glass, powder) are the same global commodities everyone buys.

Here is how to capture that spread without importing a facade problem.

What Vietnam's aluminum ecosystem actually looks like

The industry clusters around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, anchored by large extruders that grew on the domestic construction boom and now run export lines. Around them sits a fabrication layer — shops with CNC cutting centres, corner-crimping machines and IGU lines that take your drawings and deliver crated, glazed, hardware-fitted units.

Three things to understand about this ecosystem:

  1. Extrusion quality is a solved problem. 6063-T5/T6 billet is a global commodity; the big Vietnamese extruders hold ISO 9001 and export to markets with real consequences. Ask for mill certificates per batch and you get them.
  2. Hardware is imported and brand-name. Quality fabricators fit Kinlong, Cmech, Roto or Siegenia hardware — specify the brand and series in your schedule, exactly as you would at home.
  3. The variable is the fabricator. Corner joinery, gasket continuity, drainage routing and glazing workmanship differ shop to shop. This is where vetting earns its keep.

Specification checklist

  • Alloy & temper: 6063-T5 (windows/doors) or 6061/6063-T6 (structural). Mill cert per batch.
  • Wall thickness: put numbers in the contract — ≥ 1.4 mm for window frames, ≥ 2.0 mm for curtain-wall mullions and structural members. Wall thickness is the classic place a cheap quote hides.
  • Surface finish: powder coating to Qualicoat class 2 / AAMA 2604 as baseline; AAMA 2605-class PVDF for coastal projects, backed by 1,000-hour salt-spray reports. Anodizing ≥ 15 µm where specified.
  • Thermal performance: polyamide thermal breaks and low-E double glazing where your energy code demands a U-value; ask for the frame system's tested Uf, not a brochure number.
  • Glass: tempered to EN 12150 or ASTM C1048; heat-soak tested for facade and overhead glass (nickel-sulfide breakage is not a risk to accept on a hotel elevation); laminated where fall-protection applies; IGUs with certified spacer-and-sealant systems.
  • System testing: for curtain walls and window walls, ask what test evidence exists — air/water/structural to AS 2047, ASTM E283/E331, or EN 12207/12208 class ratings. Serious fabricators have test-lab history.

Ranges and indicative pricing are in our Aluminum & Glass Systems collection.

The workflow that keeps you safe

Fabricated-to-order changes the buying process. The sequence that works:

  1. Tender on your drawings + spec — system series, thicknesses, finish class, hardware brands, glass build-ups.
  2. Shop-drawing round — the fabricator redraws your details in their system; your facade engineer reviews. This round catches 90% of problems while they are still on paper.
  3. Prototype / first-article unit — one full window or panel, inspected (we do this physically) before mass fabrication.
  4. Site measurement locks final sizes. Never fabricate from architectural drawings alone on a renovation.
  5. Pre-shipment inspection — operation test on every opening unit, glass certs matched to etch marks, crate-loading photos.

Allow 45–60 days from approved shop drawings to ex-works for a mid-size package, plus sea freight — sequence it against your structure program with the landing planner.

Landed cost reality

Aluminum systems ship as crated, glazed units — volumetric cargo with real value density. A window package for a mid-rise typically moves in open-top or standard containers with purpose-built A-frames. Duty on Vietnamese aluminum joinery into major markets is low (and the punitive tariffs and anti-dumping measures aimed at Chinese aluminum extrusions in the US market do not attach to Vietnamese-origin systems — verify your HS line in the landed cost estimator). The freight line looks big; the fabrication saving is bigger. Typical all-in landed pricing lands 30–40% below local fabricated equivalents in developed markets.

Next step

Send window/door schedules, elevations, or even a marked-up floor plan through the BOM form — our desk works with vetted fabricators and returns a consolidated proposal within 48 hours. Aluminum rarely travels alone: pair it with tile, sanitary ware and quartz so one consolidated shipment covers the whole fit-out package.