With the rising popularity of natural stones from Brazil, many leading stone producers from Europe have decided to establish plants within the state of Espirito Santo. One of these new endeavors is Levantina Brasil, a modern stoneworking facility located in Vitória.
The factory opened in July of 2003, and all of the production is slabs. Over 100 containers of slabs are exported per month, much of which goes to the U.S. market. There are 93 workers at the facility, which has a total of 600,000 square feet of space, and overall production is 35,000 to 40,000 square feet per month. Blocks are processed into raw slabs on Gaspari Menotti jumbo gangsaws, which can process up to three blocks at one time. After being cut on the gangsaws, material is delivered by rail to the resin/polishing plant, which features a resin line from Protec and polishing equipment from Gaspari Menotti. They are first calibrated and then treated with resin. After the resin is cured in large-format driers, they are then polished on a 22-head polishing line, dried and treated with wax.
The quality-control process is ex-tensive, with 10 people classifying slabs into various categories. The company also records the block number, slab number and measurements for each slab to ensure that all orders can be accounted for after they are shipped.
Levantina is continually adding to its inventory of stone varieties, and recent additions include Argento, Nasca, Nautilus, Ginger, Deep Purple, Green Lara and Kalahari, among others. To maintain close contact with the U.S. market, the company has three area managers in America, including one in Philadelphia, PA.