São Paulo-based Fanavid S.A. will set up a manufacturing facility at the Port of Mariel to supply Cuba, Brazil and the Caribbean region with glass, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Brazil said after Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota returned from a visit to Cuba.

The plant will go up in the Special Development Zone at the port just west of Havana, which is undergoing a Brazilian-financed expansion. The zones, allowing companies to benefit from less red tape and simplified customs processes, are part of a government effort to convince more foreign investors to produce high value-added goods and service exports in Cuba.

“We are working on the diversification of destinations for exportable goods and services, with preference on those with the highest value added and technological content,” Foreign Trade and Investment Minister Rodrigo Malmierca said in October.

Fanavid is a privately-owned glass maker started in 1963 by the Farhat family as a supplier to the automotive industry. Since the acquisition of Santa Marina Vitrage in 2007, the company has also become the market leader for civil-construction glass in Brazil. Fanavid has two plants in the São Paulo area and 800 employees.

Fanavid facility near São Paulo

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.