The local Al-Rajhi Steel has extended the deadline for the commercial bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) packages at its planned $3bn steel complex at King Abdullah Economic City near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The original deadline was mid-June, but has now been extended to the end of July.

“The extension was granted over a couple of small issues that needed to be sorted out before the evaluation phase,” says a contracting source familiar with the project. “The Al-Rajhi plant has been on such a tight schedule that there will be the occasional addendum added at some points and this is what we are seeing here.”

MEED reported that the technical bids for the complex had been submitted by the technology providers and their construction partners on 1 April. 

The partnerships agreed by the technology providers and EPC contractors include:

• Danieli (Italy)/Daelim Industrial (South Korea)
• Siemens Steel (Austria)/Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• SMS Meer (Germany)/Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• SMS Siemag (Germany)/Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• SMS Siemag (Germany)/Petrofac (UK)   

Al-Rajhi Steel plans to make the awards for the scheme in the latter part of 2012 with completion planned for 2015.

The scope of works for the Al-Rajhi complex includes a direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant producing 1.8 million tonnes a year (t/y) of steel, two steel shops produced billets, blooms and slabs, a mill producing long products and a mill producing flat products, as well as a cold-rolling process plant.

The project is being fast-tracked because of a time limit placed on gas allocation from Saudi Aramco. The financing of the project is still ongoing.

The complex will be the largest steel facility ever built in the region in one phase.