NHC to invest above SAR 3B in industrial city, logistics zones for building materials: CEO

Mohammed Al-Bati, CEO of The National Housing Co. (NHC)

Mohammed Al-Bati, CEO of The National Housing Co. (NHC), said that the agreement signed with the China's CITIC Construction Group, to establish an industrial city and logistics zones for building materials, will be with initial investments exceeding SAR 3 billion.

This industrial city and logistics zones will directly serve the main projects in Riyadh, the Eastern Province and the Western Province, Al-Bati added, in a statement to Al-Arabiya TV.

For more news and details on the projects

He pointed out that the industrial city and logistics zones initially target 10,000 jobs to secure the projects currently underway.

Al-Bati stated that the city will work greatly to ensure the timely arrival of materials and supply chains for these projects, adding that this area will be expanded so that housing units are provided in a timely manner.

The targeted plants include all supply chains for the projects being developed, starting from precast plants to those for other materials that fall within the scope of constructing housing units, according to the top executive.

He pointed out that the Chinese plants will be localized in the Kingdom, while partnerships will be concluded with local plants with the aim of boosting production and allocating production lines for NHC projects and its partners.

"The contracting sector in Saudi Arabia is witnessing a boom and various projects are taking place in more than one city and region in the Kingdom, which indicates the potential risk of a shortage of project implementation contractors.

To overcome this gap and to ensure the construction of projects in a timely manner, we need to increase the capacity of contractors from outside the country, in addition to local companies," said Al-Bati.

NHC's projects during the first quarter exceeded SAR 5 billion, and deliveries are continuing, said Al-Bati, adding that the company aims to deliver more than 25,000 housing units this year.

He stated that NHC has delivered over the past period about 40,000 housing units in its projects and is continuing to offer, sell, implement and deliver projects to achieve its goal of delivering 300,000 housing units by the end of 2025 and 600,000 housing units by 2030.

NHC signed recently a cooperation agreement with China's CITIC Construction Group to establish an industrial city and logistics zones for building materials, which will include 12 plants to secure supply chains for residential projects, according to Argaam's data.