France’s Alstom and the local Arabian Bemco Contracting are to build a $64m manufacturing facility at the King Abdullah Economic City near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

The factory will manufacture power generation components such as heat recovery steam generators with scope to expand the product portfolio in the future.

In a statement Alstom said that the facility will afford the joint venture partners a “strong local base across the Middle Eastern region, which represents around 25 per cent of the global market”.