Several new investment deals, including a state-of-the-art bus manufacturing facility and a stainless steel pipe plant, were signed by the Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Company (Dussur), it announced on Wednesday.
The agreement for the bus manufacturing facility, with an annual capacity of 3,000 buses, was signed between Dussur, Tatweer Educational Transportation Services Company, and CHTC KINWIN Automobile Co.
The Jeddah-based joint venture company will manufacture and assemble several bus models in the first phase, using three types of engine technologies: internal combustion engine, pure electrical, and hydrogen fuel cell, Dussur said.
Steel venture
A joint venture was signed with Korea’s SeAH Changwon Integrated Specialty Steel Co. Ltd (SeAH) to establish the first local seamless stainless steel pipe production plant in the Kingdom at an investment of $270 million. SeAH and Dussur (owned by PIF, Aramco and Sabic) will invest up to $140 million with a percentage share of 51 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively. The remaining financing for the joint venture will be provided by the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.
Centre for innovation
Another agreement signed was between Dussur and 3D Systems to establish the Center for Innovation and Additive Manufacturing in the Kingdom. The joint venture will provide on-demand printing and application engineering solutions for key industries such as energy, aerospace, defense and healthcare.
Chemical reaction plant
Dussur and US-based company Baker Hughes will build a blending and chemical reaction facility with a production capacity of 30,000 tonnes to produce demulsifiers, scale inhibitors, corrosion inhibitors and biocides, among others. The facility will be located in Jubail City, Saudi Arabia. The range of products produced at the joint venture caters primarily to the needs of refineries, and oilfield service-related companies
Clean tech agreement
Dussur also announced the successful completion of an acquisition agreement with the international private equity consortium BroadPeak Global LP (Broad Peak Global) and Asia Green Fund (AGF) to acquire the clean technologies business of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. The new, independent company will be named Elessent Clean Technologies (“Elessent”).
Dr. Raed Al Rayes, CEO of Dussur, the agreements are a practical demonstration of its mission of investing in the industrial sector in the Kingdom. “At Dussur we measure the development impact of projects before investing. The Dussur portfolio has managed to attract more than one billion Saudi rial worth of foreign investment and create more than 2,600 direct jobs by 2030, with an employment nationalisation of no less than 65 per cent, reaching as high as 90 per cent in some projects, in addition to the expected added value to the gross domestic product (GDP), which amounts to 50 billion Saudi rial in the next 20 years” added Dr. Al Rayes.