Tata Daewoo to build plant for producing trucks in Saudi Arabia

South Korea's Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company announced on Monday that it will build a production plant in Saudi Arabia.

Tata Daewoo signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the establishment of the factory with local distributor Saudi Diesel Equipment Co. (SDEC) and local manufacturer Perfect Arabia Factory (PAF).

Under the terms of the agreement, Tata Daewoo will provide technology support locally, while SDEC and PAF will collaborate to assemble Daewoo trucks locally.

Tata Daewoo entered the Saudi Arabian market by signing a dealership sales contract with SDEC in 2014.

Last year, it exported 670 large trucks to Saudi Arabia, achieving sales of 48 billion won ($35.6 million).

"We decided to build a production plant in Saudi Arabia to achieve an annual export of 1,000 trucks," a company source said. "Saudi Arabia is continuously increasing demand for large trucks due to major construction projects such as NEOM City and Amiral Petrochemical Complex."

Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle exported 3,767 units last year, with 40% of its total revenue from exports.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com