General Manager (CEMEX Jamaica)

Jamaica, as well as other countries in the region, is working to promote and attract foreign investment. What would you say are Jamaica’s competitive advantages compared to other countries in the region?

In terms of the construction sector, I think that there is a great opportunity in making processes more efficient. In the mining sector, Jamaica has one of the purest limestone aggregates in the world and I do not think that they have maximised the full potential. I believe there is a lot to be done in terms of infrastructure work; specifically roads, highways and socioeconomic housing. There is a huge housing deficit and Jamaica as a country is not producing enough houses per year for what is required.

How would you describe the mining and construction sectors in Jamaica?

Construction has to be a priority of the Jamaican government. I believe that they have made construction strides because of the investments with China Harbour in the North-South and East-West Highways. There is a clear commitment to improve the mayor infrastructure network terrestrial and marine but I would like to see it open up more to inner city roads which really challenge the communities. In the construction sector there are a lot of opportunities. For example, look at Downtown Kingston, which should be a place where you have hotels, bars and restaurants but for many people it is the “no-go zone.” Investment is needed for this but more importantly is the safety aspect of the area that needs to be improved dramatically. The government needs to aid companies to invest in Jamaica because not always the business landscape is easy. Bureaucracy and confusing processes make it a huge challenge for foreign investors.

In terms of housing, there is a huge housing need. They have a good system with the National Housing Trust where they provide very affordable mortgages for the low-income bracket and they allow you to combine mortgages. But yet there is not an alignment with the Housing Agency of Jamaica, which normally has the projects but cannot get them off the ground.

In mining, there needs to be education and a culture change in terms of the use of aggregates because consumers tend to use river aggregates, which are detrimental to the environment. This is a common practice in the Caribbean, Central America and South America because on average, river aggregates are of better quality than limestone aggregates. This does not mean that limestone aggregates cannot be just as good or better. In the past, people have used limestone aggregates from a quarry that doesn’t have very good properties and a generalization is done. This creates a bad reputation to all limestone aggregates. Given the challenge of quality control people take the safe route and go with river aggregates. We need to keep pushing for better quality control, which sometimes is non-existent. If you have the proper technology and tools, you will find that there are a lot of great quarries of limestone deposits. These could be mined and used to export overseas. The US will soon be a huge importer and consumer of limestone aggregates because a lot of their quarry permits are not being renewed. The US is also on the up again which means a greater demand for concrete and road work. This translates to a higher consumption of aggregates from overseas and Jamaica is well positioned to supply that market.

There’s also the pharmaceutical sector. The quarry that we have is normally between 98-99% calcium carbonate, which is extremely pure. That type of material can be used in the pharmaceutical sector and for animal feed or water treatment. There are hundreds of applications for this product that Jamaica is not capitalizing on. There is a lot of risk in that sector but there is a good reward if you can focus on the product that you will produce, how you are going to market it, if you’re going to export it and what markets are you targeting. The cost of production is similar for a tonne of stone that you sell to the construction versus pharmaceutical industries yet the price of selling it is very different. This is because when someone is buying aggregates for construction it is very competitive but when someone needs the calcium carbonate content of the lime for aspirin or calcium pills, they need to have pinpoint quality control, which has a cost and is a value added product.

Based in Mexico, CEMEX is a leading global building materials company that provides cement, concrete and aggregates to customers in more than 50 countries. It employs close to 44,000 people and has almost 400 quarries and 2,000 concrete plants worldwide. What would you say are the reasons behind the company’s success globally?

Most importantly, the focus is on its people. We have a very strong safety culture where we are conscious of every step that we take and evaluate all of the risks that are involved before taking action. If an employee has an accident and loses a hand or dies, he or she is affecting their families, friends, co-workers and the community. It is very impactful. Therefore we are very strict with safety protocols as our goal is zero accidents for life.

Secondly, our model of sustainability. We don’t do business to just make a profit. We do business to make an impact on the countries where we operate. That’s why one of the focus areas for CEMEX in the last 15 years has been social economic housing and infrastructure. Yes we sell cement, concrete and aggregates but we want to help the countries in which we are doing business develop sustainable roads, like concrete roads that are lasting 20to 50 years. We can also help them decrease the deficit in low income housing while providing housing solutions that people can be proud of. We are a customer centric company and it is embedded in our DNA.

Third but not last is our code of ethics, integrity and way we do business. Anyone who has done business with CEMEX knows exactly the rules of the game and that we don’t do anything unethical. That is the reason we have customers that have been with us for 70-80 years or 2-3 generations. With CEMEX what you see is what you get.

You mentioned CEMEX’s Infrastructure and Housing Divisions. Tell us more about these and are they worldwide?

It’s worldwide. Pretty soon we are going to start in Jamaica. In this region we have done it in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Colombia where I think we do about 5,000 houses per year. We are in 50 countries, so how much more can we grow? Let’s develop the countries in which we are operating.

CEMEX has operated in Jamaica since 1998. Since this time, the company has diversified its product and service portfolio. What products and services do you currently offer?

We started off with a quicklime operation, basically selling to the alumina industry. Today we have another product that we started, which is called hydrated lime. I believe that we are the only producer of this in CARICOM. We have our mining operations, a quarry where we produce high calcium carbonate stone, a ready-mix department where we provide concrete products, and a housing division that focuses on primarily on socioeconomic housing. We also have our infrastructure division where we focus on promoting sustainable and durable roads that are produced with concrete. This is almost the whole product portfolio that CEMEX has worldwide except for cement. We don’t have cement here.

All of the construction projects that we undertake are with a local partner because we want to develop these countries. We are not a contractor but more a partner. We want to train people to do things the right way because in the end, whether we get a project to do an avenue in concrete or not, it’s a benefit to all of us that it gets done and we are promoting that. We train contractors; we are not a construction competitor. We are growing the pie.

Why is CEMEX Jamaica the partner of choice? What are your company’s competitive advantages?

Firstly, our reputation. We are a worldwide company that has global best practices so if CEMEX France or CEMEX UK comes up with a new technology; we transfer it to all of our business units. Local companies have a tougher time because not everybody can do research and development. So if in the 50 countries that we operate one person comes up with a great solution, no one has to reinvent the wheel because it is just transferred. We make projects more efficient, more cost-effective.

Secondly, our focus on quality and service is top notch. We are very forward, clear cut and transparent in the way that we operate and do business, and that’s why a lot of people come to CEMEX and say lets partner on a project. I am aware that some see us as a giant taking over Jamaica like Godzilla but that is an incorrect interpretation. More times than none it is not CEMEX pursuing projects, it is our customers coming to us to partner up and make projects feasible. As time passes in Jamaica, contractors are seeing the benefits of working with us. CEMEX is a project enhancer not a project executer.

Also a lot of small businesses don’t have the financial muscle to undertake projects. Let’s say that you have a major customer who has not paid you in 3 months, you still have to pay your employees, sub contractors and suppliers but maybe cannot because of lack of funds. CEMEX can withstand these situations. Our partners know that working with us the project is not going to falter. We are not saying that we don’t have to be paid on time, nor are we a bank, but in the worst-case scenario, the project will continue and there will not be delays.

Innovation is crucial for the long-term survival of any company. You mentioned R&D and technology earlier. Can you provide some examples of how CEMEX Jamaica incorporates innovation into its work?

We have two centres of technology, one in Switzerland and one in Ciudad Mexico, where all they do is R&D. On the concrete side, for example, we have products that are anti-termite so when you pour the concrete, you won’t have to spray any chemicals or re-do the wood. We have anti-bacterial concrete that kills E. Coli and salmonella so you use it for hospitals and restaurant garbage areas. We have different types of products that can help you solve different problems that you might have. Concrete is very versatile, if you change the properties, you can make it into the best material for your construction. A lot of people don’t know, but concrete is the most consumed material in the world after water. Our R&D facilities help us develop products. In Mexico, for example, we have an earthquake room, where we can put a house model and simulate an earthquake to see how cracks appear and then redesign the house based on those fatigues. That makes our socioeconomic housing proposals earthquake and hurricane resistant.

Last year CEMEX Jamaica started to produce hydrated lime and thus became the only producer in the Caribbean. Tell us about the success you’ve had with this in the local and foreign markets.

Since it is new, a lot of education has to be done. In the Jamaican market, they know hydrated lime as whitewash. At Christmas they start painting all of the tree trunks white with hydrated lime to look like snow but the origin of that is that hydrated lime repels insects. It is one of the most versatile products in the world. You can use it to purify wastewater and drinking water, for orange juice, soda pop, fertilizer and animal feed, I could go on and on. It’s also heavily used in construction for rendering so when you do your walls, the hydrated lime reduces the cracking of the mortar. A lot of people don’t know how they can incorporate that product into their business model. That is our job to create that knowledge. Our biggest market is sugar companies because they have to treat and stabilize the pH in their soil.

We started exporting to Trinidad, Guyana, Bahamas and Suriname. Educating CARICOM on how to use it is a process but once they know how to use it, the demand is going to create itself.

Lime is not a core product for CEMEX. We only have two lime operations worldwide, which are in Jamaica and Puerto Rico. It is a great product, it goes along with construction in some regards, it is versatile but it requires you to have very good aggregate deposits. You can’t just start a hydrated lime plant anywhere; you have to have pure limestone. We see that our source is so good that we can produce this hydrated lime.

With three plants in total and one quarry in Jamaica, CEMEX has invested more than US$35 million in the island since it entered the market eight years ago. Does CEMEX have any plans to further expand in Jamaica?

I think that’s a very conservative number. Socioeconomic housing is an area that we want to invest a lot in and easily a housing project can be a US$10-20 million investment. So we are continuing to invest in infrastructure as well as ready-mix and aggregates because we see that there are a lot of opportunities in Jamaica and we feel that we already have the structure to continue to expand on it.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an invaluable way to give back to the communities in which you work as well as your staff. Is CEMEX Jamaica Limited involved in any CSR projects in Jamaica?

We do a lot of work with the communities that are around our facilities. We focus a lot on sports because I think it is a way to keep kids away from the streets and doing things that they do not want to do. We partner with the local soccer team and provide them with uniforms and donations so they can upkeep their stadiums and players.

We also believe a lot in education so we do a lot of projects with schools, for example, schools for people with disabilities or those that have deteriorated. We donate material to fix the roads and do a lot of volunteer work. We will go to these schools and paint them, do carpentry and fix their bookshelves.

The readers of Harvard Business Review include many of the world’s most influential business and political leaders. What message would you like to send them about Jamaica?

Jamaica is a country that has suffered and gone through a lot of issues. Everybody knows the financial situation but even with those fears, the negativity around Jamaica having the highest homicide rate per capita is overblown and the positive information is not spread enough. I think that Jamaica falls into the human problem that we tend to focus more on the negatives than the positives. I think Jamaica has tonnes of opportunity for foreign investment, and I don't mean people coming from overseas to take away jobs from the locals. There are a lot of great local companies that you can partner with and have great vision/ideas but do not posses all of the elements that are needed to succeed. This land is basically green and you have about 2.7 million people in Jamaica. The deficit in housing is close to 600,000 so there are tonnes of areas of opportunity. The hotel sector is growing and you are starting to see some expansions there. Opportunities to develop the tourism sector, I mentioned business opportunities in Downtown Kingston, the logistics hub, infrastructure roads, bridges and a train system. To those business entrepreneurs and people looking to invest, I think that Jamaica is a great place to find great opportunities.

What message would you like to leave about CEMEX Jamaica?

We are here as an ally or partner. I like to say that when you go to the gym to hit weights, if you’re going to do bench-pressing you need the bar to hit it. If you go to another gym you still need the bar to hit it. We are not the bar not are we competing with other bars; rather we are the protein powder, the creatine and the supplements that is going to help you to get stronger. Some companies do not understand that about CEMEX. They see us as a huge company that they are going to have to compete with. We are not here to compete with you; we are here to help you succeed. Our door is always open to any company that has an idea or project that they are looking to develop.