Arab Steel reported that Steel & Iron mill in Jazan Economic city will start production in the Q3 of 2011.

Recently, an agreement has been signed between the human resources fund and the steel & iron mill in the economic city to train and habituate Jazan residents this agreement also includes dispatching 100 sons of Jazan to Qatar to be trained in Qatar Steel mill in order to be recruited to work in the Phase I of the mill which will start production in Q3 of the current year 2011 the investments volume in this project will amount to SAR 7.5 billion when it’s completed.

DHAHRAN: Saudi Aramco has awarded American construction firm KBR with a front-end engineering and design and project management services contract for the planned multi-billion-riyal Jazan refinery which is expected to process 400,000 barrels of crude everyday.

Emaar Economic City, the developer of King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia, may receive a government loan to help pay for work on the Red Sea coast project.

The government is currently considering the loan, Yahya Hamidaddin, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority’s director of Smart Cities Development, said yesterday at a conference in Jeddah. The company asked the authority for assistance to arrange the loan, he said, without providing further details.

Emaar Economic City, owned by companies including Emaar Properties PJSC, the biggest developer in the United Arab Emirates, slowed the building of houses, apartments, shopping centers and office blocks in Saudi Arabia after banks curbed lending in the kingdom. The company terminated a 390 million- riyal ($104 million) contract this month it awarded to Freyssinet Saudi Arabia in 2008.

The investment authority, known as SAGIA, is overseeing the development of four economic cities. These are King Abdullah Economic City, known as KAEC, Knowledge Economic City in Medina, Jazan Economic City in Jazan and Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mousaed Economic city in Hail.

About an hour’s drive from Jeddah, KAEC is designed to house about 2 million people and generate 1 million jobs. The city is part of a $400 billion plan announced by the government in 2008 to invest in Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure and make the country less dependent on the oil industry.

“Due to the financial crisis long-term financing was harder to get by Emaar Economic City in Saudi Arabia,” Hamidaddin said. “We originally expected the first phase of office and apartment buildings in the economic city to be completed by the end of 2009 but due to the effects of the global financial crisis, which mainly were felt in 2008, a lack of funding was experienced.”

The Riyadh-based authority will start operations at the port at KAEC in the fourth quarter of 2011, Hamidaddin said. Emaar Economic City is “putting most of the focus on the port” to attract businesses, he said.

–Editors: James Cone, Michelle E. Frazer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Abdullah in Jeddah via the Dubai newsroom at contact the editor responsible for this story: Maher Chmaytelli at mchmaytelli@bloomberg.net

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, will start building a planned refinery in the new industrial city of Jazan during the first quarter of 2013, one of the city’s developers said today.

MMC Corp. Bhd., a Malaysian company that is developing the Red Sea coastal city along with Saudi Binladin Group, said in a statement that Aramco expects to complete the refinery in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The developers are planning to build Jazan’s port in the city’s southern district, known as Jazan Economic City, near where Aramco wants to locate its refinery, MMC said.

“The detailed planning for the port at the new location has commenced,” it said.

The refinery will cost about $7 billion, Amr al-Dabbagh, the governor of the Saudi Arabia Investment Authority, told the newspaper Riyadh in September. The facility will be able to process between 250,000 barrels of crude and 400,000 barrels of crude a day, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wael Mahdi in Jeddah wmahdi@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

JEDDAH: Tabuk Regional Airport, which is being developed by the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), will receive international flights, said Abdullah Rehaimi, president of GACA.

JEDDAH: The governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has highlighted the role of mega economic cities in Rabigh, Madinah, Hail and Jazan in attracting foreign direct investment.

JEDDAH: The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announced Monday its plans to establish two new airports in Jazan and Taif with advanced facilities in addition to its efforts to expand some of the existing domestic and international airports.

In this file photo, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah (center) views a model of a modern airport planned for Madinah as Abdullah Rehaimi (left), president of the General Authority of Civil Aviation, gives a briefing. Rehaimi on Monday said two new airports in Jazan and Taif with advanced facilities are also being planned for Jazan and Taif.

Abdullah Rehaimi, president of GACA, said studies are being undertaken to establish the new high-tech airports. The new airport in Jazan will be named after Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and will be located close to the Economic City.

The King Abdullah Airport will have a capacity to handle three million passengers a year. The airport will be tendered for developers in 2011 after the design is completed, the authority said, adding that it would have high-tech aviation facilities.

The airport will have a passenger terminal to accommodate three million passengers annually. It will be located 30 km from Jazan Economic City (JEC), which is being developed by the Saudi Binladin Group and Malaysia’s MMC Corp.

The new 57-square km Taif regional airport will be located 30 km northeast of the resort city, 70 km from Makkah, and 160 km from Jeddah. In addition to serving millions of pilgrims who visit the Kingdom annually, the new airport would play a big role in developing tourism in the province.

Taif Gov. Fahd bin Muammar said the airport would reduce pressure on King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the main gateway of pilgrims.

Taif airport currently receives pilgrims from GCC countries. The existing airport in the city was founded in 1955 and is one of the first airports in the Kingdom.

GACA plans to spend between $10 billion and $20 billion on developing and upgrading airports by 2020, with private investors set to contribute up to $10 billion.

“We have given top priority to the expansion of King Abdulaziz Airport  in Jeddah,” said the GACA chief.

Hotel rooms in Mecca during the Haj pilgrimage in November are selling for almost 10 times off-season prices as demand is expected to be much higher than last year.

Many visitors stayed away from Mecca during the annual pilgrimage last year as fears of swine flu swept the world.

But this year soaring prices suggest hoteliers are expecting visitors in record droves.

The Moevenpick Hotel & Residence Hajar Tower Makkah is charging between 45,000 Saudi Arabian riyals (Dh44,071) and 65,000 riyals for 13 nights during Haj. A room during September at the hotel, meanwhile, can be booked for as little as 6,435 riyals for 13 nights.

Rates in Mecca have returned to 2008 levels, said Omar Boujlid, the general manager of the Moevenpick Hotel & Residence Hajar Tower Makkah.

And analysts say the Moevenpick Hotel is not alone.

“Everybody is looking for a better operational environment this year,” said Chiheb ben Mahmoud, the senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in the MENA region. “There’s more visibility,” he said, referring to the travel and visa bans that were imposed last year because of the H1N1 virus. “It’s not like the uncertainty of last year.”

But, he added, quotas were still limited and the authorities were still cautious about allowing too many pilgrims into the country as they work on longer-term plans to improve tourism infrastructure in Mecca.

“This is why it will not be a huge difference,” he said. “It will not be a boom.”

Data from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in the US show1,613,000 pilgrims from overseas participated in Haj last year, down from 1,729,841 pilgrims the previous year.

Mr ben Mahmoud said early indications from the Umrah pilgrimages this Ramadan were positive. “This year Umrah is rather active and could set the tone for Ramadan.” He said that last year a number of unbranded hotels near the Grand Mosque were demolished to make way for the expansion of the Haram.

Mr Boujlid said: “This year has shown earlier bookings versus last year, which [were mainly made up of] last-minute bookings due to [fears over] swine flu.”

Branded hotels in Mecca generally sell their rooms to tour operators and run at 100 per cent occupancy during Haj. Some tour operators say the price of Haj packages are expected to increase by between 10 and 25 per cent this year.

“Due to the expected increased costs this year, Haj is not affordable for the majority of people,” said Mohammed Sohail at Al Hamar Hajj Services based in Dubai. “The Haj quota is limited and the cost of Haj is increasing every year.”

Some of the improvements to infrastructure are already in place. This year, a new US$1.8 billion (Dh6.61bn) metro, the first in the holy city, is expected to start operating a limited service during Haj. The system is expected to ease transport problems between the holy sites, which in the past have led to deaths caused by overcrowding.

Also, more luxurious accommodation offerings will be available. Earlier this month, the 213-suite Raffles Makkah Palace hotel, overlooking the Grand Mosque and Kaaba, opened at the Abraj Al Bait complex, which is a seven-tower development. An 858-room Fairmont Hotel, which is located in the same complex, is also expected to open some of its rooms in time for this year’s Haj.

More than 2 million pilgrims attend the Haj each year, and a total of 7.8 million Muslims visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina each year on the Haj and Umrah.

rbundhun@thenational.ae

Tourism-related projects will drive the construction industry in the coming decade with approximately Dh858 billion ($234 billion) to be pumped into the sector during the next eight years.

According to a study by industry researcher RNCOS, the UAE will account for nearly 86 per cent of the total tourism-related projects investments in the region by 2018.

Abu Dhabi is expected to be the center of the construction boom in the UAE owing to government support to boost investment in the construction sector, it said.

Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority latest figures showed that the number of visitors jumped 16 per cent in July compared with the same month last year, ninth consecutive month of double-digit growth guest growth for the emirate.

Analysts say that travel to the UAE had dropped during recession.

However, things are now picking up, thanks to high-profile events such as the launch of Formula One.

“”The UAE has one of the fastest growing tourism industries in the Middle East.

With the expansion of tourism industry in the past few years, demand for infrastructure and tourism projects has spurred in the country.

As a result, several new projects have been announced to tap the opportunity created by the growing demand for hotels and amusement and theme parks,”" said RNCOS, which specializes in industry researches.

“”Further, the UAE is expected to invest more than 14 times the investments made by its immediate competitor, Oman, followed by Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Various national and international developers are launching large scale projects; thereby, driving the level of investments in infrastructure and construction activities,”" it added.

The study also revealed that various factors such as relaxed regulations, rising investments, economic reforms and liberalization and the emergence of UAE as a business hub in the Persian Gulf have been driving the industry.

MANITOWOC — More than 180 Potain tower cranes, Grove mobile cranes and Manitowoc crawler cranes are helping build the world’s largest women-only university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to a news release.

Costing approximately $11.5 billion, Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University is one of the largest construction projects in the Middle East.

The three main contractors are Saudi Oger Ltd., Saudi Binladin Group and El Seif Engineering and Contracting Co.

David Semple, managing director of Manitowoc Cranes in the Middle East, said Manitowoc was honored to provide the majority of the cranes for this project.

“The cost, scale and prestige of this project all combine to make it one of the largest projects we have been involved with, both in the Middle East and worldwide,” he said. “It is backed by the King of Saudi Arabia, and is attracting a lot of attention.”

Spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Higher Education, PNU was launched by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to help empower women through education and employment. Construction began in February 2009 and is scheduled to end in mid-2011 — although most tower cranes will leave the project toward the end of 2010.

The first Potain cranes arrived in April 2009. Some were sold to Saudi Oger while others are working on rental contracts. All were supplied by NFT, the UAE-based Potain dealer that covers that Gulf region. NFT is one of the world’s largest towers crane owners and is one of the longest-serving crane suppliers in the Middle East.

Cranes from across the Potain range are being used onsite. The most popular models include 17 MD 365s, 16 MDT 368s, 14 MC 310s and 11 MD 345s.

Nabil Al Zahlawi, managing partner at NFT, said tower cranes are managing large parts of the construction work.

“The main role for the tower cranes is to lift the largest building components,” Al Zahlawi said. “These include precast and hollow-core blocks that make up the majority of the university’s buildings. The cranes are almost all working with full jibs, which range from 50 meters to 75 meters in length. Working heights are currently between 50 meters and 60 meters, but some cranes will climb to 80 meters as the project progresses.”

The site covers 3 million square meters and is running on a tight construction schedule. To ensure the project stays on track, each building has at least four cranes working, according to the release.

Al Zahlawi said product support is a vital element to staying on schedule.

“On a project this size and with this work schedule, it is important to have the confidence and capability to fix any problems,” he said, “While we have our own technicians permanently on site, we know we can rely on the global support of Manitowoc Crane Care.”

In addition to the Potain tower cranes, a number of Grove mobile cranes are on site. There are all-terrain and rough-terrain cranes, some owned by contractors on the project and others supplied by rental companies. The majority were supplied through Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, Manitowoc’s dealer for Grove cranes in Saudi Arabia, the release stated.

Deepak Jain, a regional manager for Kanoo’s Riyadh office, said the number and type of Grove cranes on the project is constantly changing.

“Grove is an excellent brand for this kind of project,” he said. “The rough-terrain cranes are rugged and built for working in these conditions. The all-terrain cranes have great mobility with Megatrak suspension and offer excellent lifting ability.”

In addition to the Grove mobile cranes, there also are some Manitowoc crawler cranes on the project, including the Model 8500 and Model 12000.

The university development will take nearly three years to complete. Once finished, the campus will include administration buildings, housing for more than 11,000 people, a 700-bed student hospital, 15 academic facilities, research centers and laboratories. It will have a high-tech transportation system with automatic and computer-controlled vehicles linking the entire campus.

090510 Saudi Crane 1

090510 Saudi Crane 3

090510 Princess Nora