Daewoo International to build auto plant in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabian students gather to be briefed about an envisioned automotive manufacturing project in Saudi Arabia by Daewoo International at the trading firm’s headquarters in Sondgo, west of Seoul, on May 9. Daewoo said the deal will be completed next month. Two other stakeholders in the deal are the Saudi National Automobile Manufacturing Company and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign PIF fund. / Courtesy of Daewoo International
By Park Si-soo
Daewoo International will sign a deal to build a car manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia next month, officials said Thursday.
The nation’s biggest trading firm is in last-minute talks with the Saudi National Automobile Manufacturing Company (SNAM) to complete the deal, they said.
“Things are going smoothly. It’s expected that the deal will be completed next month,” a Daewoo spokesman said.
Under the envisioned deal, the two companies and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign PIF fund will jointly invest approximately $1 billion to build a car manufacturing plant in the oil-rich Middle East nation by 2018. The plant is expected to produce 115,000 cars a year.
Daewoo holds a 15 percent stake in the project; SNAM has 50 percent and PIF, 35 percent.
Earlier, Daewoo and the SNAM co-hosted a recruiting event for Saudi Arabian students in Korea at Daewoo’s headquarters in Songdo, west of Seoul. This indicated that their talks on the project were going smoothly.
Nearly 150 Saudi Arabian students here attended the event, during which they were briefed about the Daewoo-Saudi automotive manufacturing project, officials said.
“We need Saudi Arabian people with information and knowledge about Korea and Saudi Arabia to ensure smooth progress of the project,” the spokesman said.
Earlier this month, the two firms hosted a technical workshop for their engineers in Songdo.