RIYADH — The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources said that the number of producing factories and the under construction factories in Saudi Arabia has exceeded 10,000 factories during the first quarter of 2022. The ministry's announcement came after it issued the industrial licenses bulletin for the first quarter of 2022, represented by the National Center for Industrial and Mining Information. According to the bulletin, the producing factories and the under construction factories in Saudi Arabia amounted to 10,489 factories until the end of the first quarter of 2022 with a capital estimated at more than SR1.3 trillion. The largest percentage of the number of factories in the Kingdom is led by the factories who are working in the manufacture of non-ferrous metal products, followed by factories for rubber and plastic products, then the formed metal products factories. The bulletin indicated that the national factories topped the list of producing and under construction factories by type of investment with a percentage of 85%, followed by foreign factories with 8%, then joint investment factories by 7%. According to the Kingdom's regions in terms of the number of factories, the Riyadh region occupied the largest proportion of the total number of producing factories and the under construction factories with more than 5.1 thousand factories, followed by the Eastern Province with about 2.3 thousand factories, and then the Makkah region with about 1.8 thousand factories. The small enterprises represent the largest percentage of the total factories in Saudi Arabia until the end of the first quarter of 2022, the bulletin indicated, noting that it amounted to about 5.3 thousand facilities, followed by medium enterprises with about 4.4 thousand facilities, then large enterprises, which recorded 830 of the total factories produced and the under construction factories. Also 260 new industrial licenses were issued, with investments amounting to SR5,529 billion during the end of the first quarter of 2022, while the production began in 498 factories with investments estimated at SR16 billion. It is noteworthy that the bulletin clarified that foreign investment in the factories of the Kingdom represents 5% of the total investments in the sector, as the number of the foreign factories in Saudi Arabia amounts to about 810 factories.
