Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction has predicted more desalination plant orders after the South Korean industrial giant won a U$1 billion order to build a desalination plant in Saudi Arabia – its single largest contract in nine months.
Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion awarded Doosan Heavy the contract to build a desalination plant at Yanbu, 350km north of Jeddah, to produce 550,000 tonnes of fresh water a day, Doosan said. Construction was scheduled for completion by March 2016.
The company forecast that opportunities would arise for further desalination wins from growth in annual global demand for freshwater from desalination of 1.75 billion litres a year for the next five years.
“Everyone has been waiting for Doosan Heavy to win more orders. The order outlook for desalination and power plants seem to be positive, two areas Doosan Heavy is quite good at,” aid analyst at KB Investment & Securities in Seoul, Heu Moon Wook.
According to Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, governor of Saline Water Conversion Abdulrahman Al Ibrahim said Saudi Arabia plans to spend US$80 billion on desalinated water projects over 20 years.