August 3, 1999

CEMEX S.A. de C.V. (CMXBY: OTC) announced today that Metallurgical Industries Co., an Egyptian government entity, accepted its conditional offer to acquire Assiut Cements Co., the largest cement producer in Egypt.

Under the terms of the agreement, a memorandum of understanding has to be negotiated and final due diligence must be completed.

CEMEX would purchase up to 90% interest in Assiut from the Egyptian government for $44 Egyptian pounds per share (US$12.90 per share), or up to $1.280 billion Egyptian pounds (US$372 million). The transaction must be approved by the Egyptian government and is expected to be completed during 1999.

Assiut Cements Co. has 4.0 million tons of cement production capacity. Assiut has US$209 million of net debt.

The Egyptian cement market consumed approximately 23 millions tons of cement during 1998. The market has been growing at a compounded annual rate of 7.2% since 1992. The cement industry operates at full capacity and currently imports approximately 8% of the total consumption.

Founded in 1906, CEMEX is one of the three largest cement companies in the world with approximately 61 million metric tons of production capacity. Through operating subsidiaries positioned in three different continents, CEMEX is engaged in the production, distribution, marketing and sale of cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates and clinker. In addition, the company is the world´s leading producer of white cement and the world´s largest trader of cement and clinker.