The importance of cement to the construction industry, and the influence its price can wield on the market as a whole, was made clear during the construction boom. Demand for ready mix cement was massive and its availability dictated the times a site could be working at full capacity. One of the biggest players in the UAE market is Unibeton Ready Mix, a part of the massive Al Fara'a Group, which goes so far to describe itself as one of the ‘major league' concrete suppliers in a country with a voracious appetite for the stuff. While the company has supplied to many big name projects in the UAE, perhaps its most interesting was Dubai's floating bridge.

Back in 2007 the bridge brought relief to motorists desperate for an alternative to Dubai Creek's heavily congested bridges. Clever design using hollow concrete blocks and swift execution caught the public's imagination when the bridge was completed in just a few months. It is also at work on a future famous icon, the Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi. An ‘armada' of 500 transit mixers move the company's essential product to sites around the country and their striped livery makes them easy to spot.