STX Heavy Industries Co, a unit of South Korean conglomerate STX Group, said that it signed a USD 1.1 billion preliminary deal to build two chemical plants in western Saudi Arabia.

Under the deal with Al Watania Group of Saudi Arabia, STX Heavy Industries will construct a polysilicon plant with an annual production capacity of 6,000 tonnes and a linear alkyl benzene plant with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes by 2014.

The plant will be built in the Yanbu industrial complex, 300 kilometers north of Jeddah, the Middle Eastern country's economic capital. Polysilicon is an essential raw material for solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity, while LAB is used for making detergents.

STX Heavy Industries said that it plans to clinch a formal deal down the road, but didn't specify the date.

In February 2010, STX Heavy Industries won a USD 3 billion deal to build a gas fired power plant and a steel making plant from the Iraqi government. It also received a KRW 150 billion order from the NRC, an Iraqi oil firm, in August 2010.

(Sourced from www.yonhapnews.co.kr)