Saudi Arabia posts 9,991 operating factories by Q4 2024, investments exceed SAR 966B

As many as 9,991 factories were up and running in Saudi Arabia by the end of Q4 2024, employing around 980,000 workers and attracting more than SAR 966 billion in total investments, according to the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ annual report.

The factories comprised domestic, foreign, and joint ventures (JVs), with JVs dominating at 94% of total investments, equivalent to SAR 956.6 billion in capital, according to the breakdown provided in the table below:

Small and medium-sized factories accounted for over 92% of total operating factories. Meanwhile, large-scale factories led in total capital investment, exceeding SAR 594 billion, as shown in the table below:

These factories were spread across 24 industrial activities, led by the manufacturing of chemicals and chemical products with capital totaling SAR 412.41 billion.

Plants focused on the manufacturing of other non-metallic mineral products followed at approximately SAR 213 billion in capital. The table below shows the distribution of operating factories by industrial activity:

Eastern Province led all regions in industrial investment, totaling around SAR 447 billion and accounting for over 46% of the national total.

Riyadh followed with more than SAR 182.3 billion and ranked first in workforce size with approximately 3,745 workers, as shown in the following table: