China's biggest steelmaker, Baowu Group, will invest in a thick plate production plant in Saudi Arabia through a joint venture between subsidiary Baosteel and Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco, Kallanish notes.

Baosteel’s listed arm says the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding. The project mainly includes construction of a full-process thick plate plant and related supporting facilities, which are positioned to produce high-end thick plate products.

In the next step, the two companies will jointly conduct research on the project's business plan, feasibility study, and joint venture company formation.

This project is also a part of Aramco's industrial investment programme, Aramco Namaat, which aims to drive economic growth and diversification in Saudi Arabia. Aramco has signed 22 new MoUs and one JV agreement focused on capacity building in four key sectors: sustainability, technology, industrial and energy services, and advanced materials.

There has been talk in Saudi for many years of setting up a plate mill to cater for the oil & gas industry, as well as end-use industry diversification. Sabic scrapped a plan to build a plate mill in 2015, while Aramco signed agreements to study a plate mill with various Japanese firms in 2018, and then with Posco last year (see Kallanish passim).