The plant, to be built in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City, will have the capacity to produce 3.5 million tyres a year, and will start production in 2026
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Saudi Arabia’s Mena Tyre Company, a joint venture of Saudi sovereign wealth vehicle the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Italian tyre maker Pirelli Tyre, has awarded an estimated SR628m ($167m) contract to build the Pirelli tyre manufacturing plant in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).
The contract was awarded to Saudi Amana, the local branch of UAE-based Group Amana.
The PIF holds a 75% stake in Mena Tyre Company, with Pirelli holding the remaining 25%.
The plant is expected to start production in 2026. It will make tyres for passenger vehicles under the Pirelli brand. It will also manufacture and market tyres under a new local brand targeting the domestic and regional markets.
The plant is expected to have the capacity to produce 3.5 million tyres a year.
In July, MEED exclusively reported that Saudi Amana had emerged as the frontrunner for the project.
UK-based firm Jones Lang LaSalle is the project consultant.
The project is located within the King Salman Automotive Cluster at KAEC, in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca Province. The cluster was officially announced on 6 February by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The move was part of the kingdom’s push to become a dominant player in the Gulf’s automotive sector. Recent years have seen investment in infrastructure, supply chain development and research to attract global automakers to Saudi Arabia and create an ecosystem for electric vehicle (EV) production – driven by the Saudi Vision 2030 mandate to diversify the economy.
The cluster is expected to be a major contributor to the kingdom’s National Industrial Development and Logistics Programme (NIDLP), which aims to develop high-growth sectors locally and attract foreign investment.
Several initiatives under the NIDLP have made significant progress in recent years, including multibillion-dollar EV manufacturing plants backed by the PIF. These include assembly facilities for US-based Lucid Motors, as well as for Ceer – the kingdom’s first homegrown EV brand — launched by the PIF in collaboration with Taiwan’s Foxconn.
These facilities are supported by the National Automotive & Mobility Investment Company (Tasaru Mobility Investments), which the PIF established in 2023 to develop the kingdom’s local supply chain capabilities for the automotive and mobility industries.
The PIF has signed several agreements with international companies, including South Korean car maker Hyundai, to establish production facilities in KAEC’s automotive cluster.
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