India-based Shree Basaveshwar Sugars Limited (SBSL) has signed an agreement to build a SR1.5-billion ($400 million) sugar refinery in Jazan Industrial City in southern Saudi Arabia, a report said.

The project will be located on an area of 200,000 sq m of land and will feature loading and unloading facilities and about 400 skilled and semi-skilled workers, added the report in Gulf Base.

“The finished product of refined sugar will meet the needs of the local market and be exported to the nearby counties, if necessary,” Dilip Desai, executive director of SBSL, was quoted as saying in the report.

The raw sugar refinery project will be established with the cooperation of Gammon Group, which is developing the SR75-billion ($20 billion) Jazan Industrial City, he added, noting that the project will be ready for commercial production in 18 months.

Desai explained that the cost of the project will include price of land, equipment, buildings, steel structures, essential services, laboratories, workshops, warehouses for storing raw materials and finished materials, liquid storage tanks and molasses tanks.