PetroRabigh delay to hit costs

Petrorabigh said it would again delay completion of an expansion, raising the cost of the project to SR34 billion ($9.1 billion).

Completion will be postponed by at least six months to the second quarter of next year because of “construction market challenges”, said PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical.

Under the Phase Two expansion, an ethane cracker will be expanded and a new aromatics complex will be built to process more than 2.7 million tonnes of naphtha a year into higher-value petrochemical products.

The expanded facility was originally expected to start production in the first half of 2016. But last December, PetroRabigh said it would delay completion by nine months, raising the project cost by SR1 billion ($366.4 billion) to SR31 billion ($8.2 billion).

$1bn to help pay workers’ dues

Saudi Arabia has paid about $1 billion to Saudi Binladin Group  to enable it to cover unpaid back wages for its construction workers, the majority of whom are from the Indian subcontinent, said a report.

In September, the Binladin Group was paid between $800 million to $1.1 billion so that the firm could “honour unpaid wages”, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Key rail line gears for launch

The North-South Railway, a 1,250-km-long rail network which will start from Riyadh and run through Al-Majma’ah, Qasim, Hail and Jouf areas of the kingdom to reach Al Qurayyat, will be launched early next year, Riyadh Governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar said.

 Speaking to media during a trial run from Riyadh to Al-Majma’ah, he said the train was expected to launch operations “within two to three months”, at the beginning of 2017. 

The train will have 12 cars with spaces for the disabled in three places, along with three small praying areas.

Historic mosques to be revamped

The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH) has announced that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman has approved the plan to renovate a number of historic mosques in Madinah. The renovations are an extension of ongoing efforts to renovate and revive a number of historic mosques throughout the kingdom, explained Prince Sultan bin Salman, head of SCTNH.

Prince Sultan also announced the establishment of a fund for renovation of the historic mosques that will allow every citizen to participate in the process. He also said efforts are under way to renovate the historic Othman bin Affan mosque in Jeddah.

Cement sales down 10pc

Total cement sales in Saudi Arabia fell 10.3 per cent year on year in August, but grew 41 per cent from the previous month to 4.34 million tonnes, a report quoting Yamama Cement data said.

Total inventory reached a new high of 26.35 million tonnes, representing 45 per cent of the last 12 months sales. Inventory grew 11.7 per cent year-on-year and five per cent from the previous month, said the Al Rajhi Capital report.

Cement production in the kingdom came in at 4.3 million tonnes during August, down 10 per cent compared to the same time last year. Demand is expected to remain modest for the rest of 2016, the report added.

Coca-Cola builds new bottling plant

Coca-Cola revealed that its new bottling plant, being built with an investment of SR300 million ($80 million) in Saudi Arabia’s Sudair City for Industry and Business is expected to be operational by 2019, according to the Saudi Gazette.

The plant, which exceeds 187,000 sq m in area, will leverage state-of-the-art technology to support Coca-Cola’s capacity, productivity and capability, it added.

New prefab products unveiled

Saudi-based Red Sea Housing Services Company has launched a range of pre-fabricated products built using innovative modular construction techniques, which are ideal for residential and hospitality projects.

The Red Sea Multi-Level Modular Building Series products are said to deliver projects of consistent high quality, and significant time and cost savings, to achieve building structure heights up to 12 levels.

Nicholas Reynolds, the vice president of Modular Construction for Red Sea Housing Services, said: “Now, for the first time in this region, construction projects can take advantage of steel-frame multi-level modular construction techniques with concrete floors to achieve significant project time and cost savings.”

Exova wins Saudi pipeline contract

UK-based Exova has been awarded a £500,000 ($655,125) contract by Sepco Arabia Company to support construction on the main gas pipeline across Saudi Arabia.

The project will see Exova testing and validating materials and environments throughout Sepco Arabia’s construction of a gas compressor station for the second phase of the kingdom’s master gas system.

Once the project gets completed in 2018, it will boost the pipeline capacity to 12.5 billion cu ft of gas a day. 

As per the contract, Exova will carry out materials testing on fresh and hardened concrete, along with soil classification and compaction tests.