The US’ Fluor is expecting bids for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package on the $2.5bn aluminium rolling mill project at Ras al-Zour in Saudi Arabia to be submitted by 5 November.

The companies planning to submit bids for the contract include the South Korean trio of Samsung Engineering, Daelim and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI).

“The bids from the [South] Korean contractors are going to be competitive for this particular project,” a contracting source tells MEED. “This is a billion dollar EPC job so no-one will want to lose it.”

Fluor is pushing ahead with an engineering, procurement, construction and management (EPCM) strategy and will execute the projects in a number of packages. The rolling mill is owned by a joint venture of Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) and US-based Alcoa. Most of the major equipment for the facility has also now been procured (MEED 24:9:10)  

The rolling mill is part of a $10.8bn aluminium complex and will have a capacity of up to 450,000 tonne-a-year (t/y) when completed in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The site will also include a 1.8 million tonne-a-year alumina refinery and a 740,000-t/y aluminium smelter, with a 4 million-t/y bauxite mine being built at Al-Baitha.

Maaden holds a 74.9 per cent stake in the aluminium complex, while Alcoa owns the remaining 25.1 per cent.