Portuguese car maker and representative Salvador Caetano is to enter the aeronautics sector by opening a factory to manufacture materials near Porto in partnership with Airbus a source in the Ministry of the Economy has told Lusa news agency.

The source said Tuesday, 31 July, the factory would include a high-technology engineering unit in Gaia and a production line unit in Ovar, where “the factory should be built by the end of the year”.

With a turnover of around €75m, the unit is expected to generate 800 direct and indirect jobs.

Minister of the Economy Álvaro Santos Pereira will chair the ceremony to present the renegotiation of the EADS military offset agreement behind this partnership.

An agreement to buy 12 C-295 aircraft from EADS/CASA was signed in February 2006 by Dafearloc, a defense ministry company that bought the aircraft.

(Photograph: Jorge Firmino)