As of the end of April, the number of existing and under-construction factories in Saudi Arabia has surpassed 10,966, with a total investment value of 1.4 trillion Riyals (about $393 billion).
According to a report by the National Center for Industrial and Mining Information, the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources issued 99 new industrial licenses in May, distributed across 6 different sectors.
The food industry dominated with 16 licenses, followed by furniture manufacturing with 10 licenses. Other non-metallic mineral products, chemical products, and chemical manufacturing each received 9 licenses.
Additionally, 8 licenses were granted for rubber and plastic products, as well as fabricated metal products.
Since the beginning of the year until the end of April, the Ministry has issued a total of 484 industrial licenses.
The report also revealed that the investments in the new licenses for May amounted to 20.1 billion Riyals (about $5.3 billion).
The majority of the new industrial licenses were obtained by small-sized establishments, accounting for 88.8% of the total, followed by medium-sized enterprises at 10.10%, and micro-sized establishments at 1.01%.
Domestic factories represented the largest share of the total issued licenses by investment type, accounting for 73.74%, followed by foreign establishments at 15.15%, and joint venture establishments at 11.11%.
During May, a total of 98 factories commenced production, with an investment value of 3.3 billion Riyals (nearly $880 million).
Non-metallic mineral products topped the list of factories that started production with 18 factories, followed by fabricated metal products with 12 factories, and the food industry with 11 factories. Rubber and plastic product manufacturing came in with 10 establishments, and finally, there were 9 furniture manufacturing factories.
National factories accounted for 83.67% of the total newly operational factories, followed by joint venture factories and foreign investment factories at 8.16%.
