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The National Housing Company and Chinese state-owned conglomerate Citic will spend some SAR 3 bn on the first phase of a planned industrial city and logistics zone targeting the building materials industry, NHC CEO Mohammad Albuty told Al Arabiya (watch, runtime: 10:10).
The project will be home to 12 Chinese factories as well as a number of local players. “This will help localize the [building materials] industry and supply for [ongoing] projects by the NHC,” Albaty said. The Housing Ministry’s real estate investment arm, NHC plans to “expand further in the field” to ensure a fast delivery of projects, Albaty said.
Think localization of the whole construction supply chain: Albaty said the NHC is seeking the localization of the construction supply chain at its planned ambitious project with Citic. “It will cover all of the construction supply chain starting with precast concrete to the production of different materials that are used in building residential units. All of these factories will be localized in Saudi … with partnerships planned with local factories to boost their production and customize production lines solely for NHC projects and its developer partners,” he said.
Background: The NHC signed recently a cooperation agreement with Citic to establish an industrial city and logistics zones for building materials. The move comes under a localization drive for the local building materials sector by helping local firms expand and directly supply real estate projects, according to officials. It will also help raise the quality of finish units, officials say.
