The infamous wall is really being built. Well, at least in theory. Donald Trump has promised a wall between the U.S. and Mexico since he announced his candidacy in June, 2015. And on Wednesday, he fulfilled his promise. Well, kind of. President Trump signed an executive order to expedite the building of his famous wall, but so far there are few details as to how that will actually happen? What’s next for the wall? And how can investors benefit from it?
Will Trump’s Wall Actually Get Built?
The border between the U.S. and Mexico is 2,000 miles long. And President Trump has promised his wall will be 35-40 feet high.
That’s a lot of concrete.
About 7 million cubic meters of concrete to be precise. Plus an additional 2.4 million tons of cement, according to investing firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
What started as a promise by Trump that his wall could be built for $8 billion went up to $10 billion pretty quickly. Now that cost looks to be around $25 billion. And while Trump swears Mexico will pay for the wall, Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto adamantly swears that will never happen.
So who’s picking up the bill?
With no details presented by Trump, it looks like that cost falls squarely on U.S. taxpayers. But even if that happens to go through, there’s still the cost of maintaining the wall and the even bigger cost of manning the wall.
The U.S. Border Patrol is already short of being at full strength by 1,200 agents. And a wall without anyone to watch over it is worthless. So Trump would need to find funding for an understaffed, underfunded agency in addition to the cost of building and maintaining a 2,000 mile, 40 ft high, concrete wall.
Don’t forget about privately owned lands and environmental protection laws all along the border, not to mention that the landscape changes, with the Rio Grande changing depth and even direction throughout the year.
When you add it all up, the wall doesn’t sound extremely plausible. However, the fact remains that Trump promised a wall and now is working to expedite its construction.
Will the wall actually get built?
That all depends on who you ask, really. But one thing is clear, it’s time to invest in building. And right across the border is one of the world’s top cement producers in Mexico’s Cemex.
Cemex is the only North American company in the to 20 global cement producers. So if Trump wants to build his wall, it will need to be with Cemex’s help. That’s also good news for American factory workers, since Cemex has dozens of manufacturing sites in the U.S.and employs more than 10,000 U.S. workers. That means that if he were to leave Cemex out of the operation, he’d be hurting more than 10,000 U.S. middle class factory workers – his beloved fan base.
Watch the report from Sky News regarding the cost of Donald Trump’s wall on Mexican border:
Whether the wall gets built or not, it’s time to invest in Cemex. Shares of CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (CX) have ticked UP on the news, and make a powerful value buy as the stock should continue to rise strongly.
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