Maurice Bouri and the Cement Industry

Depending on where you live in the world, you may not think of cement as a big deal. Today almost the entire globe has access to affordable cement, but for many nations, this wasn't always the case. Throughout the 20th century, development and growth was synonymous with the construction of large-scale infrastructure and manufacturing centers, all of which require huge amounts of building materials—typically cement. Housing and government or private office space also required cement. That meant that if a country had no access to affordable cement, they were unlikely to be able to keep up with industrialization, and would not succeed as a developing nation.

Enter Maurice Bouri and Seament.

Maurice Bouri is the son of Seament founder Alex Bouri, and manages Seament today. Seament is the company that revolutionized developing countries' ability to get the cement they needed for growth and industrialization. When Seament was founded in the 1970s, it started off serving local and international companies in Nigeria. These companies counted on Seament to get them the materials they needed to get their operations off the ground. Seament was able to succeed on a local scale but, Maurice Bouri's father knew that if they were going to grow internationally, they would need to do more. They began to look at the underlying problems in Nigeria's cement importing.

Cement was difficult to import at that time because it was most economical when shipped aboard giant cement ships. However, Nigeria's antiquated ports had no capacity to dock these giant behemoths. They were just too big. Seament could see that other developing nations had a similar problem, leading to bottlenecks in the supply chain. They knew that if they could solve this problem for one nation, they could solve it for many.

While most businessmen clamored to expand the ports, a proposal that could take decades to complete, Seament took action. The company came up with its own proprietary loading platform that floated free in the water offshore. These "floating ports" could anchor in deep water to facilitate the seagoing cement ships, and then transfer the cement to shore on smaller boats.

The invention was a success. Seament went on to lead a huge time of growth in the international cement industry, spurring development in nine different countries. Now under the leadership of Maurice Bouri and his siblings, it remains one of the most innovative and successful cement companies in existence.

Maurice Bouri carries on the family tradition of value, creativity, and good business. With his guidance, Seament is likely to continue as an industry leader for many years to come.