Cement is made from a mixture of 80 percent limestone and 20 percent clay. These are crushed and ground to provide the "raw meal”, a pale, flour-like powder. Heated to around 1450° C (2642° F) in rotating kilns, the “meal” undergoes complex chemical changes and is transformed into clinker. Fine-grinding the clinker together with a small quantity of gypsum produces cement. Adding other constituents at this stage produces cements for specialized uses.

Aggregates are made from sand and gravel extracted from quarries. Around 60 percent of aggregates are used in road construction. The remainder is used to produce concrete.

Concrete is a mixture of cement, aggregates, water, admixtures and additions based on formulas that conform to predetermined strict technical specifications. Concrete is either mixed on the building site or delivered "ready-mixed" by specialized suppliers. The cement manufacturer’s knowledge of the chemical composition of the basic materials provides additional quality assurance to the user.