Texas is the largest cement-producing state in the nation. The industry pumps more than $20 billion into the state’s economy and employs more than 24,000 people.

During his State of the Union speech this week, President Donald Trump rallied the country around efforts to strengthen domestic infrastructure and expand U.S. manufacturing.

Steve Crim, founder and president of Common Sense America, said American-made cement is the best material to use to build sustainable infrastructure and energy-efficient buildings.

"Cement is used extensively throughout the home building process," he said. "We’ve seen in Texas tremendous growth in the AI data center program, electricity growth and all those things are driven by construction."

He added that importing cement from other countries takes away American jobs, and cement manufactured outside the United States isn’t held to American standards.

The cement industry has seen a 4% drop in the use of American-made cement since 2024. Crim said they would like to see the Trump administration implement policies that encourage companies to buy American.

"There’s some very real policies that we could put into place in order to ensure we use trusted, high-quality domestic cement here at home," he said. "That includes expanding the Biden-era provision requiring construction materials to produce quality-assurance testing certificates, and rewarding U.S. cement producers for investments in American jobs."

He said ramping up domestic cement production in the United States can create new jobs and boost the $159 billion industry.

Source: Public News Service