Fomento, Cuba - Cuban marble diversifies its production, with the installation of a modern Chinese system in a unit called Unidad Empresarial de Base Marmol Centro in this central Cuban city.

The unit, is one of the four of its kind in the island, and the system is still under testing.

The system permits, for the first time in Cuba, to obtain marble sheets of up to 3 centimeters thick, ideal to be used to cover tables, pavements, park benches and stools.

As reported by the weekly Escambray of the central province of Sancti Spíritus, the new production line is one of the most advanced in the country and contributes to the diversification of assortments destined for social works and the housing sector.

According to Wuiliam Rodríguez, a marble production specialist, the conditions are created for the new line to enter into continuous operation at the beginning of 2018, after the personnel training is completed.

The entity now has a new generation equipment that includes cut blocks, two polishers, a bevelling machine, a shimmer and a milling machine, with a computerized system that allows obtaining assortments from the introduction of different designs, he added.

The marble industry located in Fomento has national relevance, because of the quality of the stone, extracted from the central-southern zone of the country, that also includes the province of Cienfuegos.

Within its three quarries, stands Cariblanca, the largest, with 2,500 cubic meters extracted this year, about 600 of them called 'the creole red marble', of remarkable beauty for decoration.

Mármol Centro intends to complete a total of 51,000 cubic meters of slabs of different types before the end of the year, a figure foreseen for its 2017 productions.