ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) and Sasakura Engineering Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture; Toshihiko Sasakura, President; hereinafter “Sasakura”) announced today that they have obtained confirmation that they will receive an order for a project to restore the Al Jubail Phase 2 C4 MSF Seawater Desalination Plant of Saline Water Conversion Corporation (hereinafter “SWCC”) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The order, which is worth 142 million Saudi riyals (approximately 3,800 million yen) and is considered to be large in terms of a restoration of a seawater desalination plant, was received through the Arabian Company and Sasakura for Water & Power (headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; hereinafter “APS”), a joint venture with local capital in the Kingdom.

ITOCHU and Sasakura worked with APS to propose the restoration of the seawater desalination plant to SWCC to address the age-related deterioration of its functions. Consequently, SWCC called for bids for the restoration of the plant in June 2013. Sasakura’s excellence in engineering and its past track record in this type of project were highly regarded, which resulted in APS winning the contract.

The restoration will prolong the service life of the plant, which is normally 20 to 25 years, by 15 years or more at a lower cost than that of building a new plant. Constructed by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (now IHI Corporation) in 1984, the Al Jubail Phase 2 C4 MSF Seawater Desalination Plant is a multi-stage flash (MSF) desalination plant consisting of 10 water-generating units with a daily capacity of 23,500 metric tons each (235,000 metric tons in total per day). Expected to take approximately three years, the project mainly involves the replacement of heat exchanger tubes and other corroded components and the modification of the venting system in the evaporator.

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a large majority of the water demand for household use is met through desalination plants. Saudi Arabia still has one of the largest seawater desalination capacities in the world, but today it has a number of aged units and restoration is urgently needed. In addition, the water supply in the Kingdom is tightening on the back of rapid population growth and industrialization, and the Kingdom is planning to construct a large plant worth hundreds of billions of yen, as well as medium- and small-sized units in provincial cities. ITOCHU and Sasakura will contribute to the stable supply of water through their business, and aim to boost orders for restoration as well as to win orders for new plant construction through APS.

Project for the Restoration of the Al Jubail Phase 2 C4 MSF Seawater Desalination Plant

Profile of the Al Jubail Phase 2 C4 MSF Seawater Desalination Plant

Profile of the Joint Venture Business