CEMEX Annual Shareholders' Meeting

Monterrey, Mexico, April 27, 2006. The company's 2005 results were presented at the CEMEX Annual Shareholders' Meeting in Monterrey, Mexico on April 27. This year, the event was particularly significant for the more than 500 people in attendance because it signified the beginning of the company's 100th anniversary celebration.

A mural tracing the history of CEMEX from 1906 to 2006 hung in the lobby of the auditorium in which the meeting was held. It showed images and captions reflecting the main accomplishments of CEMEX's people over our first 100 years.

CEMEX's Chairman and CEO, Lorenzo H. Zambrano, began his presentation by pointing out that "2005 represents a transformation moment in our company. The CEMEX team grew from 25 thousand employees at the end of 2004 to more than 50 thousand in 2005. We expanded our reach to almost 50 countries and now have commercial operations with nearly 100 nations around the world. We doubled the size of our organization, and we evolved to be better prepared for the future."

The company holds today stronger positions along the industry value chain—including the production and distribution of cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and related building materials. This enables it to provide better solutions to its customers' construction needs through an increasingly integrated mix of top-quality products and services.

Mr. Zambrano emphasized that "we have evolved as a global company as regards to our most important asset—our people," as he reinforced the fact that 40 percent of the organization's executive-level employees come from companies that CEMEX has acquired over the last 20 years.

Today, more than ever, it is evident that the company has a rich cultural diversity, and regardless of the backgrounds of the employees, the company is united by its common values and culture: the CEMEX culture. As Mr. Zambrano remarked in his address to stockholders, the cultural diversity of the company clearly represents a very valuable asset for it to reach its customers and better understand their needs.

During the meeting, Mr. Zambrano highlighted the company's record results for 2005:

• Net sales grew 88 percent to US$15.3 billion dollars.
• Operating cash flow increased 40 percent, to more than US$3.6 billion dollars.
• Net income increased 62 percent to more than US$2.1 billion.
• Free cash flow rose 36 percent to more than US$2.0 billion.

After presenting the company's financial results, Mr. Zambrano reviewed the performance of the different operations. This information is discussed in CEMEX 2005 Annual Report, which is available in the corporate website: www.cemex.com.

Mr. Zambrano asserted that CEMEX's good results in 2005 resulted from the company's key discipline, the assurance that all of the operations continued to create value. "The key here, as is usual in everything we do, was and continues to be discipline."

He underscored that the best is yet to come for the company and pointed to the many opportunities for CEMEX continued profitable growth along three avenues:

1. Through the organic growth of its portfolio, by increasing its share and penetration in the markets where the company currently operates
2. Improving the cash flow from operations, through disciplined investments in operations so as to increase the production capacity and efficiency
3. Through new acquisitions that meet the company's investment criteria

He also reinforced that, to take advantage of all of our growth opportunities, the company must keep strict control of its expenses and costs, reinforce the technology platforms, and create economies of scale at a global level. In this regard, he reiterated CEMEX's commitment that "every peso, every dollar, every euro, that we invest will produce the highest possible payback."

Before concluding, Mr. Zambrano emphasized that "2006 is a very special year in the history of CEMEX, as we will be celebrating our first 100 years. We are very proud of this anniversary, and we feel very fortunate to be part of the generation that will celebrate such a significant event. But above all, we are more optimistic than ever about the future of our great company."

Those who work with CEMEX today know that, throughout its first century, the company constantly evolved not only in response to different market conditions, but also to transform the organization into the industry's driver of change.

"We have come a long way in our journey, which has taken us from being a small local company to reach national dimensions, then to have some international operations until we finally attained global status," said Mr. Zambrano.

He underscored that the road has been built and traveled by many generations of hard-working, visionary, and dedicated people, committed to the same objective of being the best.

While he was satisfied with the success that the company has achieved so far, he was even prouder of the organization that has been built and the foundation that has been laid for an even more promising future.

He concluded, "We still have many more miles of cement and concrete to travel in CEMEX's new century. I'd like to encourage us all to keep walking together."