A new joint venture to sell desalination and water treatment membranes in the Middle East has been set up between Toray Industries of Japan and Abunayyan Holding, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The new company, Toray Membrane Middle East LLC (TMME), established with projected investment of over SR 300 million (US$ 80 million) from Toray’s subsidiary Toray Membrane Europe AG, will manufacture and sell water treatment membranes as well as providing technical services.
Abunayyan Holding is a group of national strategic business units that provide power and water desalination technologies. It has set strategic goals to become the leading corporation in providing scientific and strategic power and water solutions to its customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and expanding into the Middle East/North Africa region as well.
TMME plans to newly construct a world-scale production factory in Dammam by applying Toray’s production technology and Toray’s global quality control standards. The factory will begin production of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements in 2015.
By adding Saudi Arabia (TMME) to its current operational manufacturing bases in Japan (Toray Ehime Plant), California (Toray Membrane USA) and Beijing (Toray Blue Star Membrane), Toray will have four manufacturing bases for its RO membrane elements.