Indian conglomerate Essar plans regional hub in Saudi Arabia

The Indian conglomerate Essar Group, led by its Chief Executive, Prashant Ruia, has unveiled its ambitious plan to establish Saudi Arabia as a regional hub for its expansion efforts.

The group, originally founded by brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia, is gearing up to set up a massive 4-million metric tonnes per year steel plant, coupled with state-of-the-art port facilities, in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia.

This endeavour aligns seamlessly with Saudi Arabia’s visionary plan to become a prominent electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing centre.

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Prashant Ruia, in an exclusive interview at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference held in the Saudi capital, revealed, “Automotive will be large.” He emphasized the group’s intentions to open an office in Riyadh, underlining the immense growth potential as a result of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the flurry of projects currently in the pipeline.

The transformation envisaged by the Kingdom is expected to trigger a surge in demand for steel, a gap that Essar Group aims to fill.

The 4.5-billion-dollar integrated steel plant is projected to be completed within approximately 3.5 years, contingent upon securing the necessary approvals. Ruia further stated that final approvals could be obtained in as little as six months.

For funding, Essar Group intends to collaborate with Saudi banks and financial institutions, also entertaining the notion of offering a minority stake to potential investors.

Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of diversifying its economy beyond oil is a well-documented journey, with one of its pivotal goals being the manufacture of over 300,000 cars annually by the year 2030.

This newfound commitment to the automotive sector was recently exemplified by a partnership between the Kingdom and South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co, which signed an agreement for a car plant. Moreover, U.S. electric vehicle giant Lucid Group has already made its mark by inaugurating its first international manufacturing facility this year in Saudi Arabia.

Notably, Saudi Arabia has even ventured into developing its EV brand, aptly named Ceer, further underlining its determination to be at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution. With this backdrop, Prashant Ruia anticipates that Saudi Arabia’s push to foster local manufacturing will have a cascading effect on the steel industry, notably for consumer goods production.

“The industry will come. It will come where the steel is because steel is the raw material. Once you have the steel available locally, you can then see the industry follows,” he affirmed.

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