Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco and the China National Building Material Group Co., Ltd. (CNBM) have signed a five-year cooperation framework agreement to explore the potential establishment of manufacturing facilities in Saudi Arabia.
The proposed facilities will focus on producing wind turbine blades, hydrogen storage tanks, lower-carbon building materials, and energy storage solutions.
Wail Al Jaafari, Aramco's Executive Vice President of Technical Services, emphasized the collaboration's goals, stating, “[…] By combining Aramco's expertise in nonmetallic materials and CNBM's industry know-how, we aim to identify groundbreaking advances and new business opportunities, as well as promote further development of manufacturing capabilities within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
This partnership reflects Saudi Arabia's ongoing efforts to localize manufacturing. Earlier this year, the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), entered into joint venture agreements with three Chinese companies, targeting the development of 30 GW of solar and 4 GW of wind manufacturing capacity within the country.
