Hanwha E&C signs $400M plant deal in Saudi Arabia

Hanwha Engineering & Construction (E&C) signed a $400 million plant deal with the Saudi Calcined Petroleum Company (SCPC), the company announced Monday.

Hanwha E&C CEO Choi Kwang-ho and SCPC CEO Al Qahtani signed a contract at the Intercontinental Al Khobar Hotel in Saudi Arabia last Thursday.

The plant will produce 670,000 tons of calcined petroleum coke per year at Jubail 2 Industrial City, located in the southeastern part of Saudi Arabia. Calcined petroleum refers to a carbon solid that is formed after impurities are eliminated from the residue of refined oil.

Hanwha will take responsibility for engineering, resources procurement and construction of the project. Trial runs of the plant, considered a risky part of the whole process, will be done by SCPC. Completion is expected around 24 months from now.

The project was signed under early work agreement terms, meaning the construction company had already mapped out the basic design of the plant. That is one way of speeding up the process and managing construction expenses.

Hanwha E&C completed construction of an ethylene amines chemical plant in 2010 for Saudi Arabian company AAC. It is currently building a $935 million phosphoric acid plant ordered by Ma’aden, a Saudi Arabian mining company.

“The deal will play a bridgehead for stable profit generation and strengthened performance in the chemical plant construction business for our company,” Choi said.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]