Posco building plant in Oman

POSCO E&C has signed a $400 million contract with Sun Metals LLC for a steelmaking and rolling mill plant in Oman.

Capacity at the plant will be 2.5 million tonnes annually of billets, steel bars and special steel. Completion time is 30 months.

Posco E&C will construct the plant on a Pepcom basis - project planning, engineering, procurement, construction, operations and maintenance.

Tasnee raises Cristal stake

SAUDI Arabia’s National Industrialisation Company (Tasnee) has completed a SR1.8 billion ($480 million) deal to raise its majority stake in its Cristal subsidiary by a further 13 percentage points.

Cristal is one of the world’s largest producers of titanium dioxide.

The transaction, in which Tasnee will acquire the stake from Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), is in line with the company’s strategy to maximise its stakes in its subsidiaries.

The move, completed on December 4 but first announced in September, will begin affecting Tasnee’s financial statements from the first quarter of 2015.

Marafiq inks loan deal

MARAFIQ, a utility services provider to two industrial cities in Saudi Arabia, has signed a SR2.5 billion ($666.1 million) Islamic loan that will partly be used to expand capacities in its existing projects.

The new long-term facility was arranged by HSBC’s Saudi arm.

The company counts Sabic and Saudi Aramco as shareholders.   Marafiq’s last fundraising was its debut SR2.5 billion sukuk in 2013.

MHPS deal with Aramco

MITSUBISHI Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) has concluded a corporate procurement agreement with Saudi Aramco to provide equipment and associated services spare parts and long-term servicing of gas turbines installed at Saudi Aramco’s gas and oil plants.

Services will be provided through MHI Power Systems Saudi Arabia, a group company established in 2013.

To date, 11 units of the M501F gas turbines have been delivered to Saudi Aramco by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.