Tata motors is considering building a car manufacturing plant for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, lured by cheap aluminium, Tata Motors’ chairman Ratan Tata has revealed to Autocar India.
An aluminium mega project worth $4bn is currently being built in Ras-Al-Khair, north of Jubail. The combined aluminium refinery and smelter will have an annual capacity of 740,000 tons of aluminium, and is expected to the produce the cheapest aluminium in the world.
The massive plant is a JV between Saudi Arabian Mining company Ma’aden and Alcoa, and is being built by Bechtel. Bauxite feedstock will be transported by rail from a new mine at Al Ba’itha, near Quiba, in the north of the kingdom.
“This smelter could make the production of aluminum in Saudi Arabia very competitive,” Tata said in comments carried by the magazine.
“So taking a really long-term view, if we put an assembly plant there with a large press shop, given our commitment to aluminum in our products, we could have an interesting business case which we are examining today.”
Building cars in Saudi Arabia would allow Tata ready access to the Middle East markets with its luxury brands.
Saudi Arabia has no automotive manufacturing industry, though a number of truck manufacturers have CKD assembly plants, assembling trucks from manufactured parts, partly to avoid higher customs charges.
Ras Al-Khair, known under its project name as ‘Minerals Industrial City,’ is also seeing a number of other major developments, including an ammonia plant, and facilities to produce phosphoric and sulphuric acid.
A combined power plant and a desalination plant will pump 800,000m³ of water daily to Riyadh.
According to Saudi Port Authorities, a new $640 million port will export minerals amounting to 4.335 million tons annually, and is expected to create 27,000 new, direct and permanent jobs.
