Cemex seeks supply savings

Cemex said on Monday it hopes to achieve savings of at least US$70m per year in a supply and inventory improvement program.  "We started in January with all the change processes and to sum up we expect a minimum benefit amount of US$70 million per year," Francisco Cue, Cemex’s vice-president of corporate supplies, told Reuters on Monday.  The program will use information systems for transactions and also includes an accord with the US company Geologistics to carry out imports and service deals for Cemex.

Working capital costs will also be cut in the program. "When we started this task we had around US$300m in inventories, of all the stuff we buy, and our aim is to reduce it to US$150m, and we are now close to that," Cue said.