South Korea’s Samsung Engineering is to team up with Italy’s Fata Group to bid for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package on the $2.5bn aluminium rolling mill project at Ras al-Zour in Saudi Arabia.

A source tells MEED that the decision by Samsung to team up with Fata mirror’s the company’s previous joint ventures with technology providers when bidding for metals projects.

“The [joint venture] is similar to the deal Samsung has with [Germany’s] SMS Group for the Hidd Steel Mill [in Bahrain],” the source says.

The EPC contract for the rolling mill, which will have a capacity of up to 450,000 tonnes-a-year (t/y) when completed, will be worth around $2bn to the successful bidder.The client is a joint venture of Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) and US-based Alcoa.

A source familiar with the project says that the US’ Fluor, who was awarded the engineering, procurement, construction and management (EPCM) contract for the project in May, is still conducting studies as to which direction to take.  

“No official decision has yet been announced by Fluor in regards to its strategy for the rolling mill,” the source says.  

MEED reported in July that Fluor is looking at two different project execution strategies for the Maaden/Alcoa rolling mill - either tendering out a number of different packages or tendering out one major EPC package for the project.

Two other South Korean contractors, Daelim and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), are said to be interested in bidding for the EPC contract.