China’s Harbor Contracting and Engineering Co won a SR2.2 billion ($586.7 million) contract to build port facilities at Saudi Arabia’s Ras Al-Zour, officials at the company said yesterday.
The facilities will be finished in 2010, the officials said.
It is the second big contract win in the Kingdom for the company in recent months, and provides further evidence of the increasing influence of Chinese companies across the region.
The Chinese group fought off competition from Belgium’s Dred-ging International with the local Huta Group, and a joint venture of the Dutch Royal Boskalis Westminster with Geneva-registered Archirodon Construction (Overseas).
China Harbor has partnered with the local Rafid Group on the project to form China Harbor Engineering Arabia Company.
The Saudi Port Authority has issued a letter of intent to China Harbor for the engineering, procurement and construction contract, with the official signing ceremony expected yesterday.
The three groups submitted bids in July 2007 and the contract was originally expected to be awarded in August that year. However, a series of technical and commercial issues have delayed the final decision until now.
The port, which will cost $600 million, will serve nearby fertilizer and aluminum smelting complexes.
Three berths will be built, to handle general, dry bulk and liquid cargo. In November 2007, the group was selected to build a $230 million container terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port .
The new terminal will be built based on designs made by the British engineering consultancy Halcrow and is scheduled to begin operating fully in the fourth quarter of 2009. Designed to handle 1.5 million containers annually, it will increase the port’s overall capacity by 45 percent.
Cranes manufacturer Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (ZPMC) will supply the terminal with eight container cranes, 26 ship loaders and un-loaders and large steel bridge structures. It will supply equipment in three stages starting mid-2009.
Tusdeer, a subsidiary of Saudi Industrial Services, is building the terminal with Seaport Terminal of Malaysia, which has a 20 percent stake in the project.
The $443 million project will be implemented on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis and will take three years to complete. The new terminal will be built on reclaimed land along the re-export zone at Jeddah Islamic Port and is expected to handle up to two million 20ft equivalent unit (TEU) containers a year.
The new terminal is also expected to contribute to the planned Land Bridge project with the completion of the Saudi Railways Project, creating a fast and efficient land-based link from the Red Sea to the Gulf.
More than 70 percent of the Kingdom’s imports pass across the port’s quays, including 65 percent of its imported foodstuff.
The facilities will be finished in 2010, the officials said.
It is the second big contract win in the Kingdom for the company in recent months, and provides further evidence of the increasing influence of Chinese companies across the region.
The Chinese group fought off competition from Belgium’s Dred-ging International with the local Huta Group, and a joint venture of the Dutch Royal Boskalis Westminster with Geneva-registered Archirodon Construction (Overseas).
China Harbor has partnered with the local Rafid Group on the project to form China Harbor Engineering Arabia Company.
The Saudi Port Authority has issued a letter of intent to China Harbor for the engineering, procurement and construction contract, with the official signing ceremony expected yesterday.
The three groups submitted bids in July 2007 and the contract was originally expected to be awarded in August that year. However, a series of technical and commercial issues have delayed the final decision until now.
The port, which will cost $600 million, will serve nearby fertilizer and aluminum smelting complexes.
Three berths will be built, to handle general, dry bulk and liquid cargo. In November 2007, the group was selected to build a $230 million container terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port .
The new terminal will be built based on designs made by the British engineering consultancy Halcrow and is scheduled to begin operating fully in the fourth quarter of 2009. Designed to handle 1.5 million containers annually, it will increase the port’s overall capacity by 45 percent.
Cranes manufacturer Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (ZPMC) will supply the terminal with eight container cranes, 26 ship loaders and un-loaders and large steel bridge structures. It will supply equipment in three stages starting mid-2009.
Tusdeer, a subsidiary of Saudi Industrial Services, is building the terminal with Seaport Terminal of Malaysia, which has a 20 percent stake in the project.
The $443 million project will be implemented on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis and will take three years to complete. The new terminal will be built on reclaimed land along the re-export zone at Jeddah Islamic Port and is expected to handle up to two million 20ft equivalent unit (TEU) containers a year.
The new terminal is also expected to contribute to the planned Land Bridge project with the completion of the Saudi Railways Project, creating a fast and efficient land-based link from the Red Sea to the Gulf.
More than 70 percent of the Kingdom’s imports pass across the port’s quays, including 65 percent of its imported foodstuff.