Saudi Arabia’s Sahara Petrochemicals Company and the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) has awarded South Korea’s Daelim a $750m contract to build a caustic soda and ethylene dichloride plant.

The contract covers the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and the facility will be built at the SPC complex located at Jubail in the Eastern Province.

The construction period is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 and the project will be partly funded with a loan from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. It is hoped the plant will create around 200 jobs when completed.

When completed, the plant will have a capacity 250,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of high-grade sodium hydroxide and 300,000-t/y of ethylene dichloride. Germany’s Uhde is supplying the technology.

The project is a 50:50 joint venture between SPC and Maaden.