FOREX-CEMEX started its activities in 1952, in the South of Brazil, exporting Parana Pine to Argentina, Europe and the United States. Our core business was diversified in 1973, with the introduction of hardwoods in our selection of products and our expansion to the city of Vitoria, Espirito Santo -- Southeast of Brazil. The 80's marked the beginning of parquet flooring exports and the construction of our sawmill in Santarem, State of Para, in the Amazon region. In the 90's, the Vitoria's unit was closed and the flooring plant was transferred to Santarem. Meanwhile, besides reaching new markets with our exports, we invested in kilns, flooring machinery, wood supplies and human resources. Today, FOREX-CEMEX employs more than 800 people directly, owns an agro-industrial complex spread throughout Brazil, and its forest management projects is visited and studied by specialists from international organizations and universities from all over the world. The Tres Barras unit, in Santa Catarina, has an area of 1.300 hectares with reforestation of Pinus Elliotis and Taeda, a wood processing center, sawmill and automated kilns that dry over 3.000 m3 of wood every month.
In Santarem, Para, we have an area of 156.000 m2, with a factory and automated kilns that dry over 2.500 m3 of wood every month. And 100 km away from Santarem is located the Fazenda Treviso, where the company has sawmills, a forest management project and a reforestation project of previously degraded areas with native trees. It is a tropical hardwood reserve in the heart of the Amazon kept under a strict program of sustainable development.