Concrete is a compound material made from sand, gravel and cement. The cement is a mixture of various minerals which when mixed with water, hydrate and rapidly become hard binding the sand and gravel into a solid mass. Cement can be defined as any compound that can be used to bind two materials together e.g wood, bricks, tiles etc.

The first recorded use of cement was by the Egyptians, who used it to build their pyramids, in around 2,500 BC. They used mud mixed with straw to bind dried bricks made from clay. They also used gypsum mortars and mortars of lime in the pyramids. In the later periods of civilization, volcanic materials were
ground with lime and sand to produce better cement. The Romans from 300 BC found that by mixing a pink sand-like material which they obtained from Pozzuoli with their normal lime-based concretes they obtained a far stronger material. The pink sand turned out to be fine volcanic ash and they had inadvertently produced the first 'pozzolanic' cement. The Romans used pozzolana cement cement near Mt. Vesuvius to build the Appian Way, Roman baths, Coliseum, Pantheon in Rome and Pont du Gard aqueduct in South France. They were the first who invented what today we called hydraulic cement-based concrete.

In 1824, Joseph Aspdin of England invented Portland cement by burning finely ground chalk with finely divided clay in a lime kiln until carbon dioxide was driven off. The sintered product was then ground and he called it Portland cement, named after the high quality building stones quarried at Portland, England. Today, the term is generally synonymous with Portland Cement, which is one of several cement types produced.

Good-quality concrete (a strong hard building material composed of sand, gravel, cement and water) has many advantages that add to its popularity. First, it is economical when ingredients are readily available. Concrete's long life and relatively low maintenance requirements increase its economic benefits. Concrete is not as likely to rot, corrode, or decay as other building materials. Concrete has the ability to be molded or cast into almost any desired shape. Building of the molds and casting can occur on the work-site, which reduces costs.

In Malaysia, infrastructure projects using cement as a building material (for example airports, highways, dams, housing areas and office buildings) are the foundation of our future growth. Cement is an important means for everyday life of human beings and is widely use in all buildings throughout the world.