Saudi NTC advances $1.2bn tire plant project

Hanover, Germany – Saudi Arabian National Tire Co. (NTC) is in the final stages of awarding the construction of its $1.2-billion tire production plant to an EPC contractor, according Farid Dudin, general manager of Victoria Trading FZCO and head of the tire plant project.

Among the top bidders is South Korea’s Samsung Engineering, Dudin told ERJ during the Tire Technology Expo, held 21-23 Feb in Hanover.

The scope of the project, according to the official, has now expanded from an original $1 billion (€810 million), announced in January, to $1.2 billion.

“They [EPC contractor] will be fully-involved as an EPC contractor, but we will be in charge of selecting the machinery,” said the project head.

“With projects like this, you have two big streamlines: engineering machinery equipment; and the civil part which includes the auxiliaries, construction of silos, warehouses, water treatment plant, etc.,” explained Dudin.

Roughly speaking, the machinery will cost $800 million, and an additional $400 million has been envisaged for land, construction and other EPC costs, according to Dudin.

Among the suppliers, said Dudin, are German tire machinery maker HF Tire Tech as well as Finnish automation specialists Cimcorp Oy.

Dudin has also received positive signals from various government departments of Saudi Arabia for financing support for the project.

“We need to give them updates about how far we’ve gone and they are pushing to know what the status of the project is,” he added.

Further up-to-date information on this project in the March/April issue of European Rubber Journal magazine