Doosan to build Saudi Arabia's largest steel casting plant

Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co., South Korea's power plant components supplier, signed a preliminary agreement on Wednesday to build Saudi Arabia's largest plant for steel castings and forgings for 1 trillion won ($840 million).

Saudi Aramco Development Company (SADCO), a unit of state-run Saudi Aramco, and the Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Company (Dussur) agreed to establish a three-way joint venture TWAIG Casting & Forging with Doosan for the plant construction, Doosan said on Thursday.

Doosan will take charge of the construction slated to begin this year, while the two Saudi Arabian companies provide financing. Their ownership ratios for the JV were not immediately revealed.

Once completed in the first quarter of 2025, the factory will have an annual capacity to produce 60,000 tons of steel castings and forgings, including pumps and valves, used for shipyards and offshore plants in the kingdom.

In the long term, Doosan plans to expand its product line to components for offshore power plants and other electricity generators.

"This agreement is meaningful in that it marked Doosan Heavy's first foray abroad for casting and forging technology. It will serve as a stepping stone for our expansion into renewable energy and other new businesses," Doosan Heavy Chairman and CEO Park Jee-won said in a statement on Jan. 19.

The signing ceremony, held in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh, was also attended by South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his state visit to the Middle East. 

The plant will be located in King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services in the kingdom's Eastern Province of Ras Al-Khair.

Casting refers to the process of pouring molten metal into a mold to create a desired shape. Forging is the process of physically changing the shape of a solid object by applying thermal and mechanical energy.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.