Hyundai E&C’s Saudi construction orders hit $28 bn mark

[Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group]

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. (Hyundai E&C), a construction unit of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, said Wednesday that it won cumulative orders worth $28 billion in Saudi Arabia, the highest among Korean construction companies.

According to data distributed by Hyundai E&C on the 50th anniversary of Korea-Saudi construction cooperation, the total value of construction work carried out in Saudi Arabia by Korean construction companies from the construction of the Al Ula-Khaybar Highway in 1973 through October 2023 to date was $160 billion, as compiled by the International Contractors Association of Korea.

Orders from Saudi Arabia are significant as they account for 17 percent of the total foreign orders won by Korean construction companies worth $954 billion.

Of these, Hyundai E&C won more than 170 orders in Saudi Arabia valued at around $28 billion, accounting for 18 percent of total Saudi orders won by the domestic construction industry. This performance is the highest among 300 Korean construction companies with a presence in Saudi Arabia, and Hyundai E&C has maintained the top spot since the 1970s.

Hyundai E&C first entered the Saudi construction market in 1975, when its founder Chung Ju-yung won a naval base maritime project and then went on to build the King Fahad Industrial Port in Jubail the following year, leading the construction boom in the Middle East in the 1970s.

The total value of the Jubail Port contract worth $960 million was equivalent to 25 percent of Korea’s national budget at the time, and Hyundai E&C laid the foundation for its full-scale overseas expansion with the project’s successful completion.

Since then, Hyundai E&C has partaken in major infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia, including power transmission and transformation projects in the desert, and is deeply involved in the country’s industrial development in the refining, petrochemical, and gas sectors thanks to its relationship with the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco). It is currently working on the Shaheen project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

In July 2022, the company was also selected as the preferred bidder for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of Namaat, Saudi Aramco’s mid- to long-term growth project, and signed an official contract.

Hyundai E&C’s Saudi orders have also been steadily increasing this year. In June, the company won the Amiral project, a $5 billion plant construction contract with Saudi Aramco, and won the construction rights to Jafurah Gas Field Development Phase 2, a project to expand Saudi Aramco’s largest gas plant, with Hyundai Engineering Co. on Monday.

The company is also participating in the Neom project, the Saudi government’s undertaking to become a post-oil, high-tech, and eco-friendly country, by forming a consortium with Samsung C&T Corp. to construct an underground tunnel in The Line city in Neom.

“We are looking forward to opportunities in new projects and additional orders for Neom City through the latest economic diplomacy between Korea and Saudi Arabia,” an official from Hyundai E&C said. “We will continue to lead the Middle East boom in the post-oil era by solidifying strategic cooperation with major Saudi clients based on trust for the shared prosperity of both countries.”