--- title: Largest Mexico Cement Company Won’t Build Trump Border Wall description: Mexico's largest cement company says it will not participate in building President Trump's border wall. canonical: https://time.com/4720356/president-trump-mexico-cement-border-wall/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-31T11:19:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:08:19.705Z article:section: Politics og:title: Largest Mexico Cement Company Won’t Build Trump Border Wall og:description: Mexico's largest cement company says it will not participate in building President Trump's border wall. og:url: https://time.com/4720356/president-trump-mexico-cement-border-wall/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8c73fd9d61c5e93/6988c028bc6cfc76f53e0a8e/trump-foreign-aid-humanitarian-crisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Largest Mexico Cement Company Won’t Build Trump Border Wall twitter:description: Mexico's largest cement company says it will not participate in building President Trump's border wall. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8c73fd9d61c5e93/6988c028bc6cfc76f53e0a8e/trump-foreign-aid-humanitarian-crisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mexico’s Largest Cement Company Says It Won’t Build President Trump’s Border Wall > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 31, 2017 11:19 AM UTC  President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, March. 27, 2017. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, March. 27, 2017. Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 31, 2017 11:19 AM UTC When President Trump begins construction on the southern [border wall](http://time.com/4695484/donald-trump-border-wall-residents-mayors/?iid=sr-link5), he won’t have help from Mexico’s largest cement company. “I want to be very clear on this topic: Cemex will not participate in the construction of the wall,” said Rogelio Zambrano, president of multinational building materials and construction firm Cemex, [CNN Money reports](http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/30/news/economy/cemex-wall-construction/index.html?sr=twCNN033117cemex-wall-construction0908AMVODtopPhoto&linkId=36042236). Still, Cemex may have to provide building materials to whichever companies do work on building the wall. “If one of our clients requests a quote for materials, we have the responsibility to do so,” the company said in a March 2 [statement](http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/02/news/economy/mexico-cemex-border-wall/?iid=EL). “But this does not imply that Cemex will participate in the project.” More than 700 firms around the country [have expressed interest](http://time.com/4710070/border-wall-boycott-san-francisco/?iid=sr-link2) in helping to build the wall, and Trump’s budget plan asked for $1.5 billion in immediate funding to start planning and construction. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4720356/president-trump-mexico-cement-border-wall/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4720356/president-trump-mexico-cement-border-wall/"},"headline":"Mexico’s Largest Cement Company Says It Won’t Build President Trump’s Border Wall","datePublished":"2017-03-31T11:19:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:08:19.705Z","description":"Still, Cemex may have to provide building materials to whichever companies do the work","url":"https://time.com/4720356/president-trump-mexico-cement-border-wall/","keywords":["Immigration","White House","Mexico","onetime","president trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8c73fd9d61c5e93/6988c028bc6cfc76f53e0a8e/trump-foreign-aid-humanitarian-crisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8c73fd9d61c5e93/6988c028bc6cfc76f53e0a8e/trump-foreign-aid-humanitarian-crisis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Donald Trump","caption":"President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, March. 27, 2017.","creditText":"Jabin Botsford—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4720356/president-trump-mexico-cement-border-wall/","name":"Mexico’s Largest Cement Company Says It Won’t Build President Trump’s Border Wall"}}]}] ```