At CEMEX, safety is an integral part of our company values. We promote safe behavior not just in the workplace and among our employees, but also in our employees’ families and homes, and in the surrounding communities.

The main components of our safety program include the Safety Manual, a Monitoring and Tracking Electronic System, the CEMEX Safety Award, and specific programs implemented in each country where we operate.

The monitoring and tracking system, for example, incorporates a database system called SISTER (System of Indicators of Safety in Effective and Real Time). It was developed by CEMEX and is unique in the cement industry, providing indicators and relevant safety facts online from every CEMEX plant. With this information, every director and manager can see what is happening in other CEMEX facilities, and can identify ways to implement preventive measures in their own plants. By making well-informed decisions quickly, they help improve safety in every sector of the company.

The third annual CEMEX Safety Award, presented in April 2002, recognized CEMEX plants for their outstanding safety performance. The Merida plant in Mexico received from our CEO the top honor for cement plants, and Cluster Transístmica in Panama took the award for the concrete sector.

Our corporate safety performance in 2002 has improved for the sixth straight year, as shown by the reduction of our accident rate from 1.74 in 2001 to 1.65 in 2002, an improvement of 5%.

In 2002, more than half (57%) of all CEMEX personnel around the world were working in business units where the accident rate is below 1%. That represents a solid increase over 2001, when the figure was 38%. In addition, 14 cement plants and 19 concrete clusters completed 2002 without a lost-time accident. However, the accident severity rate, which is the average number of lost workdays per accident, increased from 29.6 in 2001 to 41.8 in 2002.