Cemex increased its price for grey cement in Mexico by 20 per cent YoY in 1Q17. It represents the largest first-quarter increase in at least a decade and twice the seven per cent rate of inflation. No reasons were disclosed for the rise in prices.

In addition, the company also announced a 4.3 per cent increase in investments to US$730m this year. 

"One of our highest priorities is to recover our investment grade, so we continue to make significant progress in this quarter, from our 2016-2017 divestment target of US$2.5bn, we announce that today we are close to US$2.4bn,” said Maher Al-Haffar, executive vice president of Investor Relations at Cemex.