CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries. In 2020 it was ranked as the 5th largest cement company (by amount of cement produced annually) in the world, at 87.09 million tonnes. Lorenzo Zambrano was the chairman and chief executive officer until his death on May 21, 2014. The Board of Directors named Rogelio Zambrano Lozano as chairman, and Fernando A. Gonzalez as CEO. About a quarter of the company's sales come from its Mexico operations, a third from its plants in the U.S., 30% from its operations in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and the rest from its other plants around the world. CEMEX currently operates on four continents, with 64 cement plants, 1,348 ready-mix-concrete facilities, 246 quarries, 269 distribution centers and 68 marine terminals. In the 2021 Forbes Global 2000, Cemex was ranked as the 1178th -largest public company in the world with over US$13 billion in annual sales. The company's world headquarters are in San Pedro Garza García, a city that is part of the Monterrey metropolitan area in the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. History CEMEX was founded with the opening of Cementos Hidalgo, in 1906. Meanwhile, Cementos Portland Monterrey began operations in 1920, and in 1931, the two companies merged, becoming Cementos Mexicanos, now CEMEX. In the 1960s, CEMEX grew significantly when it acquired several more plants throughout Mexico. In 1976, the company went public on the Mexican stock exchange, and that same year, became the largest cement producer in Mexico with the purchase of three plants from Cementos Guadalajara. In 1982, the company made significant progress in overseas markets, doubling its exports. Further acquisitions of Mexican cement companies were made in 1987 and 1989, making CEMEX one of the ten largest cement companies in the world. In 2004, CEMEX received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for their creative and efficient use of information technology. Internationalization, 1990–2006 In 1992, CEMEX began its push into the international landscape with the purchase of Spain's two largest cement companies, Valenciana de Cementos (Valcem, currently head of CEMEX Spain) and Cementos SANSON. Venezuela's largest cement company, VENCEMOS, was acquired by CEMEX in 1994, and plants were purchased the same year in the United States and in Panama.