Cuba building vinyl homes

The Prensa Latina state news agency in Cuba is reporting that Cuba will produce more than 14,000 homes per year, mostly from PVC, thanks to a joint project with Venezuela. The project will ease a housing shortage in Cuba, according to another report. Cuba calls the homes "Petrocasas," and says it will build about 40 of the 753-square-foot homes daily. The manufacturing equipment to make the components (one would assume extrusion lines, although the story does not say) will be installed in September. About 75 percent of each structure will be made of PVC, according to the Prensa Latina report. It will take eight working days to build each one, and officials expect them to last about 50 years. Cuba plans to start producing its own PVC resin in 3-4 years, according to the Prensa Latina report. Considering the problems that PVC extruders in North America are experiencing right now, it's too bad that the Cubans can't buy housing components from suppliers in the U.S. and Canada, instead.