After the closure of the Hobart K & D brick factory at the end of April, the Longford brick factory will become the only brick factory in the state.Builders are concerned that the closure announced yesterday will enable Australian brick companies that own the Longford manufacturing plant formerly known as nuburrik to charge higher prices for their products.Michael Kerschbaum, executive director of the state of construction master Tasmania, said K & D's statement surprised many in the construction industry."From our point of view, this is a question of whether Australian bricks can meet the standards and meet the additional needs for them," Mr Kerschbaum said .".Australia can use its monopoly on the market, he said."When no one keeps the market honest, you may find that the cost of bricks increases.Australian brick, a subsidiary of National Brick Factory Limited, provides about half of the bricks sold in the state.Lindsay Partridge, general manager of the brick factory, is confident in the site, which has the ability to produce 15 million bricks per year and export to New Zealand and Japan, which can be supplied to the country as a whole."It gives us some thought," said Mr Partridge .".K & D (Kemp & Denning Ltd) said its brick factory was the victim of heavy environmental regulatory requirements.Peter Geard, general manager of K & D, said it would have to spend up to $2 million to meet the next round of stricter regulations.The spending will also lead to an estimated increase of nearly ten per cent in our manufacturing costs, Gilde said.This is neither financially feasible nor sustainable.John molllison, acting director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that the agency has been working with K & D for many years to improve the company's environmental performance, especially the management of smoke, dust and noise emissions.