HANOVER, Germany—Saudi Arabian National Tire Co. 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 said at the Tire Technology Expo, held Feb. 21-23 in Hanover.
The scope of the project has expanded to $1.2 billion from an original $1 billion, announced in January.
"(The EPC contractor) will be fully-involved as an EPC contractor, but we will be in charge of selecting the machinery," Dudin said.
"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.," Dudin said.
Roughly speaking, the machinery will cost $800 million, and an additional $400 million has been set aside for land, construction and other EPC costs, according to Dudin.
Among the suppliers, Dudin said, 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 said.