How did CEMEX integrate the firms it acquired? Did CEMEX pay attention to the problems of distance during the integration process? Case 13.1 CEMEX: growing and growing stronger11 Of all the countries and industries one could match, the combination of Mexico and cement does not necessarily sound like the ideal couple to produce an efficient organization, able to expand internationally largely through effective acquisitions. Yet CEMEX has done just that. It has grown from a local Mexican producer into the third-largest cement producer in the world by 2005, after France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim. During the 1990s, it sustained a compounded annual growth rate of 26 per cent in operating cash flow, almost double the industry average.