CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V.
Construction Materials
CEMEX was a regional Mexican cement company when, in the 1990s, it did something no emerging-market industrial firm had dared: it went on a global acquisition spree, buying cement plants in Spain, Egypt, the Philippines, and the Americas in a few years. The Monterrey-based company became a case study in emerging-market globalization — and one of the world's three largest building materials companies.
The business is concrete in every sense: cement, ready-mix concrete, and aggregates (sand and gravel), sold to construction firms building highways, dams, airports, and housing. CEMEX pioneered the digitalization of the industry with its 'Concrete-as-a-Service' model — dispatching ready-mix trucks by GPS and analyzing delivery data decades before most rivals, and its patented low-carbon concrete products (Vertua) are marketed as construction's green option.
With about 45,000 employees and annual revenue near US$15 billion, CEMEX operates in 50+ countries and has survived near-bankruptcy (the 2008 crisis hit it hard) to emerge leaner and more profitable. For infrastructure contractors, CEMEX's global footprint and logistics technology make it the builder's supplier of choice across Latin America, the US, and beyond.
