Cemex pleased with U.S. business but still far from full recovery

MEXICO CITY Nov 8 (Reuters) - Mexico's top cement maker Cemex said on Thursday that it is pleased with the way its U.S. business is evolving but acknowledged it is still far from a full recovery.

"We are cautious and we are far from a full recovery in the U.S. business but the trend is certainly in the right direction," Maher Al-Haffar, Cemex's vice president of corporate communications and investor relations, told Reuters in an interview.

One of the world's biggest cement companies, Cemex was swamped by the 2008 U.S. housing meltdown shortly after paying out about $16 billion to buy Australian peer Rinker. It has been working its way out of deep debt obligations for the past three years.