Newly established Saudi Arabian steelmaker South Steel Company (SSC) has received a SAR 600 million ($160 million) loan from the Saudi government's investment body, Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), in an effort to partially fund its new steel project worth SAR 1.35 billion ($360 million).
The new plant in question will be located in Jizan Economic City, one of four new economic centers planned by Saudi Arabia to boost its oil-based economy and create news jobs. Jizan Economic City is situated on the southern Red Sea coast, close to the main trade routes to Europe, the Far East and the Gulf.
SSC'S Jizan plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of one million mt of plate and 500,000 mt of reinforced bars.
SSC began the construction of the plant in January 2009. Steel production is scheduled to start in 2011.
The SIDF loan received by SSC is one of the largest granted to the steel industry. The French-Saudi joint venture Banque Saudi Fransi will provide the remainder of the financing.
SSC chairman Suleiman al-Harbi commented, "The plant will eventually be expanded to bring the overall investment in the project to about SAR 10 billion ($2.67 billion)." He added that, once expanded, the plant would cover Saudi Arabia's domestic steel plate needs and would export any surplus.