Saudi Arabia Industry

While Saudi Arabia may traditionally have seen the oil fields in its Eastern Province as the source of its wealth, the gold, phosphates and bauxite found in its western and northern regions promise to provide a third pillar of the economy by complementing oil and petrochemicals. Billions of dollars will be ploughed into mining, infrastructure...

The Kingdom’s agricultural sector is a little unusual by the standards of emerging markets. Whereas in many countries the major challenge is turning primary production into higher-value end products, Saudi Arabia is faced with the opposite issue. The Kingdom has developed a highly successful processing industry. However, this sector is...

Of all the industrial and commercial sectors that Saudi Arabia is targeting for development as part of its shift towards a knowledge-based economy, defence is one in which it is particularly well placed to become a global leader. Already the world’s third-biggest defence spender, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies,...

Falling demand and rising competition for feedstock, alongside a national push to bring the price of raw materials closer to market rates, are combining to put pressure on Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals industry.

Project insurance is nothing new in Saudi Arabia: the insurance market in its modern form emerged in the 1970s, when foreign insurers, brokers and agents opened branches in the country to provide coverage for the spike in construction projects caused by the oil boom of that era. Over successive decades these firms expanded their business to...

Following the costly price competition of 2013, which eroded profitability across the sector, the market has responded to regulatory intervention and returned to a trajectory of sustainable growth over the course of 2014. With expansion potential emerging from both big-ticket projects and the high-volume, low-value business at the retail end...