French-Swiss firm Lafarge ready to sell cement for Trump’s wall

NEW YORK: French- Swiss group LafargeHolcim is ready to sell its cement to build US President Donald Trump’s controversial border wall, the company’s CEO said in an interview.

The wall Trump promised to erect along the US- Mexico border, valued at tens of billions of dollars, is at the center of a diplomatic crisis between Mexico City and Washington and is provoking criticism around the world.

“We are prepared to supply our materials to all types of infrastructure projects in the United States,” LafargeHolcim chief Eric Olsen told AFP.

“We are the leader in cement, so we supply all our customers,” he said. “We are here to support the building and development of the United States.”

Asked about possible consequences for the company’s reputation, Olsen stressed that LafargeHolcim is not a political entity.

“We are here to supply our customers’ needs,” he said. “We don’t have a political view on things.”

He refused to comment on a possible victory for the extreme right- wing candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, a prospect increasingly worrying international business and financial circles.

Olsen also declined to comment on the indirect financing by Lafarge in 2013 and 2014 of armed groups in Syria, a country torn by civil war, to keep one of its cement plants active.

French President Francois Hollande warned the company to “be cautious before bidding” on the project.

There are certain businesses in which “one must be careful before declaring” participation, Hollande said at a press conference in Brussels. — AFP