Industry Ministry licenses 79 new factories worth SAR 2.3 bln in December 2022

Logo of Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources

Saudi Arabia licensed 79 new factories at a total investment value of SAR 2.33 billion in December 2022, data issued by Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources showed.

The new licenses included six industrial activities, led by manufacturing shaped metals except for machinery and equipment with 13 licenses, followed by manufacturing food products with 11 licenses, furniture with 9 licenses, other non-metallic mineral products with eight licenses.

Manufacturing chemicals and chemical products, and, manufacturing rubber and plastics products received seven licenses each.

Small-sized enterprises received most of the new licenses in December with 83.54%, followed by medium-sized enterprises with 12.66%, and micro-enterprises with 3.80%.

Meanwhile, the national factories accounted for 75.95% of new licenses, followed by foreign establishments at 16.46%, and joint investments at 7.59%.

The report issued by the National Center for Industrial and Mining Information showed that 34 factories started actual production in December, with an investment of SAR 390 million.

Food industry topped the list with nine factories, followed by non-metallic minerals with five factories, rubber and plastics with four factories, and trailed by paper and shaped metals with three factories for each category.

National factories dominated with 85.29% of the total factories started production in December, followed by foreign factories with 8.82%, then joint factories with 5.88%.

Moreover, the report revealed that the new industrial licenses were distributed among 11 administrative regions across the Kingdom, topped by Riyadh with 30 licenses, followed by Eastern Province with 17 licenses, Makkah with 11 license, Qassim with five licenses, Madinah and Najran with four licenses for each, and Asir with three licenses, Al Jouf with two licenses, and Tabuk and Hail with one license each.

The table below shows key industrial indicators in December:
 

The total number of industrial licenses issued by the Ministry of Industry since the beginning of 2022 until the end of December stood at 964, while the number of existing factories reached 10,500, with an investment volume of SAR 1.43 trillion, the report added.