Cement

President Hugo Chavez on Thursday ordered the nationalisation of all cement companies operating in Venezuela, saying his government cannot allow businesses to export raw materials needed to help tackle a national housing shortage.

See : http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/04/03/venezuela.cement.ap/index.html.

I used to know the cement sector quite well, and was a staunch defender of the creation of major international groups. This probably is not the smartest of moves for Venezuela, but it shows that opposition to globalisation may be growing, and that the power of multinationals may be curtailed after all.

But let's not overstate the importance of the message. Even the biggest international cement groups are very small, minuscule, potatoes when compared with the real giants in other sectors, such as oil, food, transport, banking ...