The Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) and the US’ Alcoa have released the tender for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the steam host facility at the $10.8bn aluminium complex being built at Ras al-Zour in the kingdom.

At least four companies have been invited to bid on the project, which has a value of between $80m-$100m and will be part of the 1.8 million tonne-a-year alumina refinery that is planned for the site.

“This is a relatively straightforward contract, but what is interesting is that this is the first package connected to the [alumina] refinery that is being built,” says a source familiar with the project. “We are expecting more to be released over the coming months.”  

The steam host facilities will provide steam for various uses across the refinery and the scope of works will involve the installation of boilers and other steam generating equipment.

The contractors bidding for the contract includes:

• Hanwha Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Samsung Engineering (South Korea)
• Western China Electric (China)

Many of the packages for the first two projects being executed at the complex have now been awarded by the joint venture partners.

Recent awards include including Australia’s McConnell Dowell winning the potline installation package at the 740,000-t/y smelter as well as Samsung Engineering being awarded the 380,000-t/y rolling mill EPC package (MEED 20:5:11).