South Korean companies are bagging multibillion-dollar contracts in the Middle East, with deals this week to build plants in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Now South Korea is shooting for a bigger target - the region's proposed nuclear power plants. Korean and Saudi officials will meet on Monday in Riyadh, laying the foundation for South Korea to sell its nuclear technology.
Riyadh has yet to announce the scope of its nuclear power programme, which it hopes can supply up to a fifth of its electricity needs.
South Korea sent its nuclear technology abroad for the first time in 2009 when a consortium from the country won a US$20 billion (Dh73.46bn)contract to build four reactors for Abu Dhabi.
It also sold a research reactor to Jordan. The planned nuclear talks in Riyadh follow a flurry of other energy deals for South Korea in the region.
Saudi Electricity, the state utility, yesterday signed a $3bn agreement for its Qurayyah power plant with Samsung C&T and Saudi Acwa Power, according to Bloomberg News.
On Tuesday, the South Korean company SK Engineering & Construction and its US partner Shaw Group secured the contract for a $3.5bn Egyptian petrochemical plant in Ain Sukhna, 120km east of Cairo.
"Egypt is due for explosive growth if the right tools are put in place, and everything that we have seen over the past six months tells us that we are headed in this direction," Basil El Baz, the chairman of Carbon Holdings, the Egyptian company building the plant, said in June.
"Egypt is like a stock that is not being valued accurately, and it will be due for some robust expansion over the next 12 to 18 months."
The plant is expected to produce 1.35 million tonnes of ethylene a year.
Since 2007, the Middle East has increased production of ethylene - the raw material for polymers - by adding 13 plants, nearly doubling capacity to 28 million tonnes a year.
Now the drive to supply to the ethylene market, growing at 4.7 per cent a year, is limited by the hydrocarbon resources Middle Eastern countries can draw on,said Tony Potter, the managing director for the Middle East and India at Chemical Market Associates in Dubai.
"The industry in the region now is entering a phase where the ability to build new ethylene plants is limited by the amount of new feedstock that's available."
ayee@thenational.ae
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.