ALKHOBAR: Saudi Arabia's National Industrialisation Co. (Tasnee) chose Taiwan's and Japan's Chiyoda Corp 6366.T to build a titanium sponge plant for its majority-owned Cristal subsidiary, Tasnee said on Sunday.
The two contractors are expected to finish construction of the plant in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast in the first half of 2017, with trial and commercial operations due in the third quarter of that year, Tasnee said in a statement.
The plant, which will cost an estimated $290 million, is to have an annual capacity of 15,600 tons. Titanium sponge is an intermediate product that is purified into ingots and mill products.
Tasnee and Cristal each have a 32.5 percent stake in the project, while Toho Titanium has 35 percent.
Tasnee picks Asian contractors for titanium sponge plant
