Cemex is one of the biggest cement producers worldwide, with leading positions in cement, aggregates and ready-mix. ICR caught up with CEO Fernando A González for a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from the impact of the pandemic, Cemex’s strategic priorities and targets, decarbonisation and the future of the cement industry.
ICR: The world has lived through an incredible period since 2020. Turning first to the recent past and the pandemic, how did this impact Cemex?
Fernando González (FG): There are so many things that we can comment on, so many interesting times that we have gone through and continue going through. I remember in the 2Q20 when we started understanding that there was a virus causing a pandemic with potentially disastrous scenarios or impacts, we really thought that we were going to be having a very material disruption. And because of that, we took many bold actions in a very short period of time. We took as much cash as possible just to be sure that we could navigate a few months of disruption, stopping almost all capex. In the end, the construction industry as a whole was not impacted as much as other industries, due to a combination of it being a better scenario than the one we imagined, and the very bold actions that were taken. Although there was a sizeable impact on our industry, it was contained to four months.
