Portes: Revista mexicana de estudios sobre la Cuenca del Pacífico (Oct 2008)
Recent developments in the cement industry: a comparative study between Mexico and India
Abstract
Since early twentieth century, the use of cement has become a popular and strategic product for economic growth of every country. In India as in Mexico, the first factories began in the earlier twentieth century, India is nowadays the world’s second largest producer and Mexico is the third firm in cement production, despite being the tenth world producer. The eighties have significate for both countries major structural changes in its economy, which have radically altered the structure and functioning of the cement industry and even more during the decade of the nineties. This article discusses the recent performance of the cement industry in both countries, compares the dynamics and causes that gave rise to these changes. It examines changes in the structure of domestic market in both countries and the strategies employed by large companies that operate in both, including a brief analysis of the role of transnational corporations in their development at the stage of globalization and liberalization of markets that characterizes the last two decades. Finally, it explores the great changes that make possible the growth and expansion of the cement industry during the period, based on technological change, the determinants of competitiveness and the role of economic policies in the development of industry in both countries.
