At World of Concrete 2006 in Las Vegas, confirmation was given that the Portland Cement Association had received in November 2005 a letter of membership
CP STAFF
At World of Concrete 2006 in Las Vegas, confirmation was given that the Portland Cement Association had received in November 2005 a letter of membership resignation from Cemex, effective January 1, 2006. However, by the end of the conference, Cemex made clear that the announcement of the Commerce Department’s agreement with Mexico on cement imports had made it possible for the company to remain a PCA member.
With an end now at hand to this divisive dispute, I have communicated our intent to immediately rejoin PCA, said Cemex USA President Gilberto Perez in a Jan. 23 statement. As I said last November upon our resignation, we looked forward to the day in the not-too-distant future when we could rejoin an industry association with whom we share a common mission and passion so that together we could address the challenging issues that face our industry. I am pleased to say that day has arrived.
Considering that the Mexican construction materials giant contributes about 10 percent to PCA’s total annual budget, the move might have dealt the association a substantial blow and ripped about $1 million from its budget, based on Cemex’s production of roughly 14 million tons.
In an interview with Concrete Products at World of Concrete, Perez cited the actions of PCA members in the Southern Tier Cement Committee as the primary reason for deciding to leave the association. Cemex asked its peers in PCA to get serious about the dumping issue and to look into a settlement and pull together as an industry, he explains. The response from members of the Southern Tier group Û who are influential in PCA Û was that we were a Îlobbyist machineÌ trying to convince D.C. to eliminate tariffs. Last fall, the STCC ran an ad in the Congressional Roll Call publication calling Cemex ÎcynicalÌ and Îopportunistic.Ì We found that it was impossible to interact with people that thought that way. Leaving PCA was a matter of principal.