HD Hyundai begins construction of marine engine plant in Saudi Arabia

Groundbreaking ceremony for Makeen engine plant in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia [Photo provided by HD Hyundai]

HD Hyundai Co., the holding company of South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, will build a marine engine plant in Saudi Arabia, paving the way for the company to license-produce its own mid-size engine for the first time.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., the intermediate holding company of HD Hyundai‘s shipbuilding business, announced Sunday that Makeen, a joint venture with Saudi Arabian Development Co. (SADCO) and Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Co. (Dussur), held a groundbreaking ceremony for an engine factory in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia.

The engine plant will be built in an area of 150,000 square meters in the King Salman Global Maritime Industries Complex in Ras Al-Khair near Jubail, a city in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

Makeen will begin full-scale production in the fourth quarter of 2025. The maximum annual production capacity will be 30 large marine engines, 235 medium engines, and 160 marine pumps.

It is the first time that HD Hyundai is producing the Hi-touch Marine & Stationary Engine (HiMSEN), a medium-sized engine developed by HD Hyundai that owns the original technology, overseas.

HiMSEN, currently the world’s best-selling medium-sized marine engine, accounts for more than 40 percent of the global mid-sized marine engine market. It is exported to more than 40 countries in Central and South America, the Middle East, and Asia.