Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Italy’s Pirelli Tyre have tendered the contract to build the estimated $550m tyre manufacturing plant in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). The notice was issued in December last year with a bid submission deadline of 10 April. UK-based firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is the project consultant. The plant is expected to start production in 2026. It will make tyres for passenger vehicles under the Pirelli brand. It will also manufacture and market tyres under a new local brand targeting the domestic and regional markets. The plant is expected to have the capacity to produce 3.5 million tyres a year. The project is being tendered by the Mena Tyre Company, which is a joint venture between PIF and Pirelli. PIF holds a 75 per cent stake in the venture, with Pirelli holding the remaining 25 per cent. The project is located within the King Salman Automotive Cluster of KAEC, which was officially announced on 6 February by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The move is the latest sign of the kingdom’s push to become a dominant player in the Gulf’s automotive sector. It follows heavy investment over recent years in infrastructure, supply chain development and research to attract global automakers to Saudi Arabia and create an ecosystem for electric vehicle (EV) production in particular – all driven by the Saudi Vision 2030 mandate to diversify the economy. The cluster is expected to be a major contributor to the National Industrial Development and Logistics Programme (NIDLP), which aims to develop high-growth sectors locally and attract foreign investment. Several schemes catering to the NIDLP have made significant progress in recent years, including multibillion-dollar EV manufacturing plants backed by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), such as assembly facilities for US-based Lucid Motors and Ceer, the kingdom’s first homegrown EV brand, launched by the PIF in collaboration with Taiwan’s Foxconn. These facilities are supported by the National Automotive & Mobility Investment Company (Tasaru Mobility Investments), which the PIF established in 2023 to develop the kingdom's local supply chain capabilities for the automotive and mobility industries. The PIF then signed a number of agreements with international companies that wanted to establish production facilities in the KAEC automotive cluster, including the South Korean car maker Hyundai and Italian tyre brand Pirelli. (ICE RIYADH)

Fonte notizia: Meed