SOUTH KOREA’S Hyundai Heavy Industries said it had won a $3.2-billion order to build a thermal power plant in Saudi Arabia.

Under the deal with Saudi’s energy authorities, Hyundai will build a 2,640-MW power plant at a location 20 km south of Jeddah and near the Red Sea by 2017, Hyundai said in a statement. Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) said that the plant, which will use steam turbines, is to be built in 45 months.

The capacity of the plant is equivalent to five per cent of the Middle East country’s total electricity supply, it said.

South Korean shipbuilders including Hyundai, the world’s largest shipmaker, are trying to strengthen plant construction and other businesses, as demand eases from European commercial shippers hit by the eurozone crisis.

Hyundai had set a target of $24 billion in orders this year but had only won $8.2 billion worth – excluding the latest Saudi deal – by the end of last month.

The other bidders included Daelim Industrial, Samsung C&T, a consortium of Doosan Heavy Industries and Hyundai Engineering and Construction, France’s Alstom with Saudi Arabia’s Bemco, and a consortium comprising Siemens Marubeni and Turkey’s Gama, the sources said.