The analysts here at Morningstar are featuring Cemex (CX) today. The analysis, though, is a bit flawed.  Yes, Cemex does business all through the smoking hot economies of Latin America. Yes. they just bought Rinker and are positioning themselves for the next housing boom.

Where the analyst got it wrong is in the downside of: What if the housing boom is delayed or just doesn't materialize.

This is the genius of going with Cemex.  Concrete is fluid. It can build houses. It can build roads and bridges.

Natural disasters cause damage. More concrete.

Our aging highways and byways will need a lot of upgrade over the next few years. More concrete. Even if the economy slows, the mistake of our dear analyst is thinking that belt-tightening happens in public works projects. In a big economic slow down, politicians look for economic stimulus plans. Construction, particularly of public works, is a big, big win for the vote-getting set. Thinking that the Feds are going to sit around the table and tighten their belts, as the analyst does here, goes against the history of make-work government spends from FDR's massive WPA project to Gov. Richardson's New Mexico choo-choo project to the Alaska bridge to nowhere.

There is nothing that says votes like politicians employing a lot of unemployed construction workers. Highways fix complaints about infrastructure problems, and put a lot of people to work.

Even if commercial buiilding is affected, it may affect the budget of projects, but that well might benefit concrete. In Florida, for example, with steel prices rising, many big office projects go wide, not, high, and the buildings are often pre-fab sheets of concrete with a more minimal steel and glass structure.

The world keeps spinning. Some companies may make more or less in the construction trade.  Oil, wood and concrete are life blood products to a wide variety of businesses and public projects. 

Cemex has been dragged down with the rest of the construction business, but, its top-flight management, placement in the world's economies, and efficiencies in operation make it the Saudi Arabia of concrete.

Pour a bit into your portfolio.