SOUTH KOREA’S Daelim has received a $750-million engineering, procurement and construction contract from Sahara Petrochemicals to build a new petrochemical plant in Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia, according to reports.

The project, a joint venture between Sahara and the state-run miner Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden), will have a production capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of high grade sodium hydroxide and 300,000 tpy of ethylene dichloride.

Preliminary work has begun for the project being developed using German UHDE technology, under a 34-month early work agreement.

The project will be financed through bank loans including a $240-million loan from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), according to the reports.

Work on the project is due to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2012.