A number of leading global and regional construction firms have shown interest in building the world’s tallest tower at the port city of Jeddah.

The 1,000-m-plus-tall Jeddah Tower project is poised to be the centrepiece of the Jeddah Economic City development.

Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) had sought bids by the end of last year from 14 leading construction groups to complete the project, according to reports.

However, a Business Korea report said all the three Korean firms invited to bid – Samsung C&T, Hyundai Engineering Construction and Daewoo – have decided not to take part in the project.

MEED had reported in October that the 14 firms included, apart from the Korean heavyweights, European construction majors – Skanska (Sweden) and Strabag (Austria); Chinese groups – China Harbour, China State Construction Engineering Corporation and Powerchina; and Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) of Lebanon, in addition to top regional players, Egypt’s Orascom Construction and Kuwait-based Mohammed Abdulmohsin Al Kharafi & Sons. Prominent players from Saudi Arabia including Al Bawani; El Seif Engineering Contracting; Nesma & Partners and Saudi Freyssinet were also invited, according to the report. 

According to the Business Korea report that cited sources in the construction industry, among the three Korean firms, Hyundai and Daewoo E&C reportedly decided early on not to participate in the tender. However, Samsung C&T reportedly took longer to decide since it is a prestige project and “it was not easy for the contractor to give up its title as the construction company that built the world’s tallest building,” said the report.

Samsung C&T had built the 828-m-tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world’s tallest building at the moment, and also the 508-m-tall Taipei Financial Center building in Taiwan, the second tallest in the world, it added.

Jeddah Tower will be the first skyscraper in the world to reach a height of 1,008 m (168 floors from the ground) with an estimated construction cost of $1.23 billion. It will be taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by more than 172 m.

The construction work for the tower’s superstructure, which began in the early 2010s with the local Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) as the contractor, is one-third complete. The foundations and piling work for the record-breaking tower are finished. Germany’s Bauer completed the piling work for the building, said the report.

The project’s architect is US-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill, and the project manager is Lebanon’s Dar Al Handasah (Shair & Partners).

JEC – a joint venture between Kingdom Holding Company and Bakhsh Group (40 per cent stake each) and Sharbatly Group (20 per cent share) – commissioned an independent assessment of the structure before the tender was issued.