In the biggest deal ever between a Mexican company and the U.S. computer giant IBM, Mexico’s largest cement manufacturer Cemex will soon begin outsourcing jobs to the technology firm. The deal is expected to save Cemex more than $1 billion over the next decade and will increase the company’s financial stability while cutting costs.

According to a report by Reuters, Cemex has been working hard to recover from the collapse of the U.S. housing market after spending $16 billion to purchase Australian competitor Rinker. 

The deal could affect around 1,500 jobs within Cemex, but IBM is expected to absorb many of them, which will lessen the blow. The transition is expected to begin in September of this year and will be complete by December of 2013. 

“Starting 2014 is when we will have a full year of savings… that we hope should be of more than $100 million per year,” Cemex Chief Financial Officer Fernando Gonzalez told Reuters. “The final numbers for the outsourcing plan will not be public until later this year.”

According to Bob Hoey, who is IBM’s general manager for integrated technology services, this contract marks the most significant outsourcing deal ever to take place between IBM and a Mexican company and is one of the largest of its kind for the tech giant in all of Latin America. 

It also marks a smart business move for Cemex, which has been hard at work cutting costs and lessening its debt burden in recent years. These efforts have clearly paid off, as Reuters reported in early July that the company had announced its highest quarterly operating core profit in almost three years.

Cemex owns Mexico real estate and is headquartered in Monterrey and employs more than 42,000 people worldwide, with operations in more than 50 countries. As part of the new deal, IBM has also agreed to provide Cemex with its advanced business process and information technology services, including financial services, accounting and human resources support.