Strong research support for EDE claims, page-15

Just adding some info from the 2014 20F Report. I figure most people wouldn't have scrolled far enough to see the country specific info. I've cut most of the Cemex specific stuff out. If you want to read more, read the report.

United States

Demand for cement is derived from the demand for ready-mix concrete and concrete products which, in turn, is dependent on the demand for construction. The construction industry is composed of three major sectors: the residential, the industrial and commercial, and the public sectors. The public sector is the most cement intensive sector, particularly for infrastructure projects such as streets, highways and bridges. While overall cement demand is sensitive to the business cycle, the public sector demand is more stable and also has helped to soften the decline in global demand during periodic economic recessions.

The construction industry is continuing to recover from the recession experienced during 2008 and 2009, which was the worst downturn in over 70 years. Industrial & commercial nominal spending accelerated in 2014, increasing approximately 15%. The public sector, which has lagged the other construction sectors in this recovery, turned positive in 2014 with spending up approximately 3% over prior year as fiscal conditions for most states have returned to a relatively balanced position. Cement demand has been increasing annually since 2010 with cement demand up approximately 8% in 2014 after a cumulative increase of 17% from 2010 to 2013. The Portland Cement Association is forecasting a 8% increase in cement demand for 2015.

Competition. The cement industry in the United States is highly competitive, including national and regional cement producers in the United States. Our principal competitors in the United States are Holcim, Lafarge, Buzzi-Unicem, Heidelberg Cement and Ash Grove Cement.

The independent U.S. ready-mix concrete industry is highly fragmented. According to the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (“NRMCA”), it is estimated that there are about 5,500 ready-mix concrete plants that produce ready-mix concrete in the United States and about 55,000 ready-mix concrete mixer trucks that deliver the concrete to the point of placement. The NRMCA estimates that the value of ready-mix concrete produced by the industry is approximately U.S.$30 billion per year. Given that the concrete industry has historically consumed approximately 75% of all cement produced annually in the United States, many cement companies choose to develop concrete plant capabilities.

We have continued to take a number of actions to streamline our operations and improve productivity, including temporary capacity adjustments and rationalizations in some of our cement plants, and shutdowns of ready-mix and block plants and aggregates quarries. We are currently utilizing approximately 78% of our readymix plants, 68% of our block manufacturing plants and 88% of our aggregates quarries in the United States.