WOC Mexico gets grande.

Mirroring the growth of Mexican construction, World of Concrete Mexico 2005 in June attracted about 10% more attendees, and 75 more exhibitors than the 2004 inaugural show.

Attendees this year saw a wide range of concrete industry-related products. Cemen Tech and Zimmerman Industries, manufacturers of volumetric trucks, saw a good deal of foot traffic. Mexican contractors wanted to learn how to become less dependent on manually batching fresh concrete, said Josh Watters, Cemen Tech's national sales manager.

The show in Mexico City impressed Mark Maloney, managing director of Barbados-based Preconco Limited. Maloney's precast operation casts a wide range of products, including pavers, hollowcore, and roof tiles, along with traditional wet cast. Maloney who often attends the World of Concrete in the United States, found the Mexican version very useful.

A third-generation Barbadian, Maloney started the operation 13 years ago with his brother, who handles field erection. Preconco is growing each year and now ships product to the rest of Caribbean "We often transport our products 1000 miles in containers," said Maloney.

Maloney's fastest expanding markets. He's supplying about 30 precast elements to a local developer each week. The developer offers eight different single-family, one-story structures. They feature cast walls, hollow core floors and concrete tile roofs. "They've been well-received in this hurricane risk region," said Maloney.

Apparently his job isn't fast-paced enough. Maloney races cars throughout the Caribbean in his spare time. Visit www.preconco.com to learn more about this producer and www.world ofconcretemexico.com for more on the show.