Kuwait ranked fourth in the Gulf in terms of the value of contract awards last March, recording $776 million, at a time when the UAE topped the process of awarding contracts in the Middle East with a value of $5.6 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia in second place with deals worth $4 billion, and Oman third, by signing deals worth $800 million.
MEED magazine stated that the region is embarking on a promising renaissance, as by the end of the first quarter of 2023, it recorded a total of $27.3 billion in deals signed in this period, compared to $19.7 billion in deals signed in the same period in 2022, but less than the value of the same period in 2021 at a time when the region is expected to record a greater value of contract awards in the second quarter of this year, reports Al-Qabas daily.
As for the value of deals signed in the Middle East (Gulf countries, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Egypt), it more than doubled in March to reach $11.7 billion from $4.7 billion in the previous month.
In the UAE, the largest deal signed in March was in the water sector, where a team from France’s Sidem and local contracting company Al-Nasr won a $2.5 billion construction contract for the Port 2 reverse osmosis desalination project, set to start operating in the summer of 2025, and will reach full production capacity by the third quarter of 2025. In addition, the Emirates Water and Electricity Company plans to award another deal soon.
The construction sector in the UAE was also active in March, as the largest deal was signed on a $2 billion contract by the team of owner of RAK Hospitality Holding, Marjan, and the American Wynn Resorts, with local contractor Alec to build an integrated resort on Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah, where the resort development, valued at an estimated $2.5 billion, is the largest project of its kind in the emirate’s growing hospitality sector.
In Saudi Arabia, almost all sectors awarded contracts, with the petrochemical industry seeing the largest value of deals signed at $1.4 billion. The largest deal signed in the kingdom in March also originated from the industry sector, as a contract was awarded by the Saudi Aramco-Total Refining and Petrochemical joint venture to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction to build a mixed cracker at the Amiral Chemicals facility.
Meanwhile, Oman recorded a $800m contract award in March, with the largest deals emerging from the power sector signed for the Manah 1 and 2 independent photovoltaic projects, and the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company awarded a $400m contract to a team from France’s EDF and PV to West Korea Power South Korea to build the Manah 1 plant, while the second $400 million contract went to a joint venture between Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries and China.
