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Middle East ventures into vehicle manufacturing
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
The Saudi Arabian government is looking to invest $1 billion in a factory in the hopes of attracting manufacturing from car makers such as Jaguar.
The Middle East is on the verge of transforming its contribution to the automotive landscape from powering cars to actually building them.
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it is currently conducting a feasibility study to establish a production facility in the Saudi Arabian industrial port of Yanbu, becoming the first car maker to leverage the region’s rich resources and financial incentives.
While Holden and Toyota are trying to ensure the long-term future of its Australian manufacturing facilities and are presently lobbying the federal government – and the coalition – to continue taxpayer-funded assistance beyond 2016, the Saudi government is prepared to invest heavily to attract a manufacturing industry led by the likes of Jaguar.
It is willing to stump-up more than $1 billion to construct a world-class facility in Yanbu and plans to lease it to Jaguar Land Rover for production of its sports sedans and top-end SUVs. The intention is to have the factory up-and-running by 2017, and Jaguar Land Rover sales and marketing director, Phil Popham, said it is just part of a drastically expanded manufacturing base beyond Great Britain that will include India, China and also possibly Brazil and another in South-East Asia.
Saudi Arabia’s move into manufacturing has arisen following a $55b investment into developing Yanbu, a port city on the Red Sea coast, as a major industrial hub.
One of the major attractions to Jaguar Land Rover is the massive Alcoa aluminium smelter already established there, which can provide low-cost materials for its aluminium-intensive vehicle structures.
“This smelter could make the production of aluminium in Saudi Arabia very competitive,” Ratan Tata, the founder of JLR’s eponymous parent company, told Saudi news service, The National, recently.
“If we put an assembly plant there with a large press shop, given our commitment to aluminium in our products, we could have an interesting business case,” Tata said.
The Middle East is on the verge of transforming its contribution to the automotive landscape from powering cars to actually building them.
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it is currently conducting a feasibility study to establish a production facility in the Saudi Arabian industrial port of Yanbu, becoming the first car maker to leverage the region’s rich resources and financial incentives.
While Holden and Toyota are trying to ensure the long-term future of its Australian manufacturing facilities and are presently lobbying the federal government – and the coalition – to continue taxpayer-funded assistance beyond 2016, the Saudi government is prepared to invest heavily to attract a manufacturing industry led by the likes of Jaguar.
It is willing to stump-up more than $1 billion to construct a world-class facility in Yanbu and plans to lease it to Jaguar Land Rover for production of its sports sedans and top-end SUVs. The intention is to have the factory up-and-running by 2017, and Jaguar Land Rover sales and marketing director, Phil Popham, said it is just part of a drastically expanded manufacturing base beyond Great Britain that will include India, China and also possibly Brazil and another in South-East Asia.
Saudi Arabia’s move into manufacturing has arisen following a $55b investment into developing Yanbu, a port city on the Red Sea coast, as a major industrial hub.
One of the major attractions to Jaguar Land Rover is the massive Alcoa aluminium smelter already established there, which can provide low-cost materials for its aluminium-intensive vehicle structures.
“This smelter could make the production of aluminium in Saudi Arabia very competitive,” Ratan Tata, the founder of JLR’s eponymous parent company, told Saudi news service, The National, recently.
“If we put an assembly plant there with a large press shop, given our commitment to aluminium in our products, we could have an interesting business case,” Tata said.
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