Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 16 January 2026 the Saudi Council of Ministers, via Cabinet Decision No. 468/1447 (issued 30 December 2025 / 9 Rajab 1447H), published in the Umm Al-Qura Official Gazette four sets of implementing regulations governing the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), Ras Al-Khair, Jazan, and Cloud Computing & IT Special Economic Zones. The regulations entered into force on 16 April 2026 (90 days after gazette publication) and operationalise the SEZ framework first launched by ECZA in April 2023. Each zone has its own standalone framework but they share a common headline tax package: 5% corporate income tax for up to 20 years, zero VAT on intra-SEZ and SEZ-import flows, customs-duty suspension on qualifying imports, withholding-tax exemption on dividends and approved cross-border payments, and exemption from key provisions of the Saudi Companies Law, Commercial Register Law, and Trade Names Law. KAEC focuses on advanced manufacturing, automotive, consumer goods, ICT and pharmaceuticals; Ras Al-Khair targets shipbuilding, offshore rigs and MRO; Jazan covers food processing, metals conversion and logistics for Africa-bound trade; the Cloud Computing SEZ is a virtual zone (data centres can sit anywhere in KSA, headquarters must be in Riyadh) for cloud and AI-compute workloads. The package is the operational implementation layer for the 2024 Investment Law and a core Vision 2030 FDI-attraction instrument.

On 2 January 2026 the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources concluded the 9th Exploration Licensing Round — the largest mining-licensing round in the Kingdom's history — by awarding 172 mining sites (including 76 sites cleared via multi-round public auction) to 24 companies and consortia drawn from 26 qualified bidders. The round covered over 24,000 km² spanning the Ad-Duwaihi/Nabitah gold belt (Riyadh region) and the Nuqrah and Sukhaybirah/As-Safra gold belts (Madinah and Qassim regions). Successful bidders committed over SAR 671 million of exploration spend in the first two years of their work programmes; total project investment across the round's awarded licences exceeds SAR 44 billion (~USD 11.7 bn) and represents a 220% YoY surge in licensing-round commitments versus the 2024 round. The round operationalises auction provisions of the 2020 Mining Investment Law (Royal Decree M/47) and is the first Saudi licensing round to formally include the Aramco-Ma'aden lithium JV (Manara Minerals) on the bidder side.

On 31 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) issued Decision No. 93483 raising the mandatory Saudization (localization) quota for engineering professions in the private and non-profit sectors from 25% to 30%, alongside a minimum-wage floor increase from SAR 7,000 to SAR 8,000 for qualifying Saudi hires. The decision covers 46 designated engineering professions (architect, power generation engineer, industrial engineer, electronics engineer, vehicle engineer, marine engineer, health engineer, and others) at establishments employing five or more workers in those roles, and requires professional accreditation from the Saudi Council of Engineers. Implementation began six months after issuance, on 30 June 2026, to give employers a compliance runway.

On 9 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) issued the December 2025 batch expansion of its Mandatory List — a binding instrument requiring government entities, state-owned enterprises, and sub-contractors to source listed products exclusively from Saudi domestic manufacturers meeting the LCGPA-defined local-content threshold. The December 2025 expansion brings the list to approximately 1,444 national products across 16 sectors, effective 1 March 2026, with LCGPA targeting a total of approximately 2,000 products by end-2026. The Mandatory List operationalises the demand-side layer of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 / National Industrial Strategy (NIS) industrial-policy stack, directly restricting foreign-supplier access to Saudi annual government-procurement budgets estimated at SAR 500 billion+ across central government, Aramco, PIF-portfolio entities, Ma'aden, SEC, STC, Saudi Post, and Saudi Railway.

On 1 December 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) signed localization and knowledge-transfer agreements with four domestic manufacturers — Al-Sweedy Electric, Al-Sahel Company, Al-Zamel Company, and Composite Materials Company — to establish local production of polymer (fibre-composite) street-lighting poles, displacing imported metal and plastic poles. The initiative was run as a competitive "localization opportunity" tender (opened via LCGPA's Localization of Industry & Knowledge Transfer program, submissions closed 14 February 2025) under the sponsorship of the Public Investment Fund's Oil Sustainability Program, which promotes polymer/composite substitutes for hydrocarbon-linked feedstocks. Once qualifying domestic production is established, the product is slated for addition to LCGPA's Mandatory List, which would require government entities, SOEs, and their sub-contractors to source the item exclusively from the approved local manufacturers.

Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden), MP Materials Corp., and the US Department of Defense signed a binding term sheet on November 19, 2025 to establish a joint venture that will build and operate a rare earth refining and separation facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ma'aden holds a minimum 51% controlling stake; MP Materials and the DoD together hold the remaining 49%. The facility will process rare earth feedstock from Saudi and global sources to produce separated light and heavy rare earth oxides, with a validity window to commercial agreement extending through March 31, 2027.

On 29 October 2025, during the Future Investment Initiative (FII9) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) and the PIF-owned Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE) signed an agreement launching "Phase One" of national adoption of localised cybersecurity technologies. The agreement commits more than 15 Saudi government entities to source cybersecurity products — Rakeen NGFW (next-generation firewalls), Rakeen IPS (intrusion-prevention systems) and Rakeen XDR (extended detection and response) — from Rakeen Cybersecurity, a SITE subsidiary established to localise these technologies domestically. The signing was attended by the Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources and LCGPA board chairman Bandar Al-Khorayf, PIF Governor Yasir Alrumayyan, and National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) Governor Majed Almazyed.

On 28 October 2025, Saudi Arabia's Local Content & Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA) signed five localization and knowledge-transfer agreements on the sidelines of the Global Health Exhibition 2025, covering domestic manufacture and technology transfer for the biologic drugs etanercept and adalimumab (both used to treat chronic inflammatory / autoimmune conditions) and for orthopedic trauma implants. The adalimumab agreement was signed separately with Boston Oncology Arabia and Tabuk Pharmaceuticals. Boston Oncology's own disclosure of its adalimumab/ etanercept agreement (announced 4 November 2025) put the combined economic impact at over SAR 1.2 billion in cumulative GDP contribution and approximately 500 direct jobs, with production sited at its Sudair Industrial City facility (USFDA/EMA/SFDA-standard). Global Trade Alert's tracking of the same state act records seven counterparties in total (Boston Oncology, Tabuk Pharmaceuticals, Rameem Medical, Bio Vision, Sudair Pharma, Almana Company, and an additional pharma manufacturer), consistent with LCGPA's practice of bundling several related product-localization signings into one event.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT) issued its final affirmative dumping/injury determination on rutile-grade titanium dioxide (HS 3206.11) originating in China on 27 October 2025, published in the Umm Al-Qura official gazette and effective 28 October 2025. Producer-specific CIF duty rates were set at 19.39% (Shandong Dawn), 29.65% (Anhui Gold Star), 30.9% (LB Group/Lomon Billions), 32.21% (Yibin Tianyuan), and 37.27% (Pangang Group Vanadium & Titanium Resources), with a 45% residual rate for all other Chinese exporters. Anatase-grade TiO2 is explicitly excluded from scope. The measure runs for five years to 26 October 2030, with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority directed to collect the duty.

The Saudi Council of Ministers adopted Resolution No. 269 on 11 October 2025, amending the Precious Metals and Gemstones Law to transfer all supervision, regulation, and licensing of precious-metals and gemstones manufacturing activities from the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) to the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM). The Ministry of Commerce retains authority over retail trade outlets and consumer-facing commercial activities. A six-month transition window — announced jointly by MoC and MIM on 16 October 2025 — requires all existing manufacturing practitioners to obtain an industrial licence through the "Sanai" platform; mandatory hallmarking, gemstone identification tagging, and consumer-documentation standards also take effect under the revised regulatory framework.

Alat, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) company established to advance Saudi Arabia's advanced-manufacturing ambitions under Vision 2030, closed a EUR 160 million (~USD 185 million) joint venture with Germany's TK Elevator on 5 August 2025 to manufacture and service elevators, escalators, and moving walks in Saudi Arabia for the Saudi and wider MENA market. Alat separately acquired a 15% long-term equity stake in TK Elevator itself. The JV establishes what Alat and TKE describe as the first elevator/escalator manufacturing operation in Saudi Arabia by a global company, including a product-development centre and training facility, and is a direct antecedent to the later TKE ALAT groundbreaking on a ~SAR 285 million (~EUR 65 million) manufacturing facility in Dammam's Third Industrial City.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT), chaired by Dr. Majed Alkassabi, issued its final affirmative determination on 29 June 2025 imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on longitudinally-welded circular stainless-steel pipes and tubes originating in or exported from the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. Duty rates range from 6.5% to 27.3% depending on exporter, effective 30 June 2025, following an investigation opened 2 May 2024 on a domestic-industry complaint. The measure runs for five years, with the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) directed to collect the duty at the border.

On 12 May 2025, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and PIF Chairman Mohammed bin Salman launched HUMAIN, a new PIF-owned company mandated to "operate and invest across the artificial intelligence (AI) value chain as a unified operating company" — spanning next-generation data centers, AI/cloud infrastructure, and a multimodal Arabic large language model (ALLAM). PIF's wholly-owned Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) was folded into HUMAIN at launch. The company is a Vision 2030 vehicle for economic diversification away from oil into a state-controlled AI industrial base, and has since signed multi-billion-dollar infrastructure and chip-supply deals with NVIDIA, AWS, AMD, Cisco, and xAI, and a USD 1.2bn financing package with Saudi's National Infrastructure Fund toward a stated 6.6GW domestic data-center capacity target over the next decade.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Foreign Trade (GAFT), under Chairman Dr. Majed Alkassabi, issued a final affirmative determination imposing definitive anti-dumping duties on Sulphonated Naphthalene Formaldehyde (SNF) — a concrete superplasticiser/water- reducing admixture — originating in or exported from China and Russia. The decision was published in the official gazette on 2 December 2024 and took effect 3 December 2024, directing the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority to collect duties in the range of 18.12%-34% for five years (to 2 December 2029). The investigation was initiated 20 November 2023 following a complaint from the Saudi domestic industry.

On 11 August 2024, King Salman issued Royal Decree No. M/19 promulgating Saudi Arabia's new Investment Law (Nizam al-Istithmar), which entered into force on 12 February 2025 (180 days after publication in the Um Al-Qura' Gazette). The law replaces the 2000 Foreign Investment Law (Royal Decree M/1) and eliminates the statutory distinction between Saudi and non-Saudi investors, establishing a unified national-treatment framework: foreign investors no longer require a separate MISA foreign-investment licence and instead complete a streamlined registration with a national registry before commencing activity (other than listed securities, which remain under CMA rules). The law codifies fair-and-equitable treatment, freedom to manage and repatriate capital, IP protection, and protection from expropriation except by final judicial ruling with prompt compensation; activities are open by default, subject only to an "Excluded Activities" list maintained by an inter-ministerial committee. Implementing Regulations were issued by Ministerial Resolution No. 1086 dated 8/8/1446H (7 February 2025) and published in Um Al-Qura' Gazette issue 5083 on 25 April 2025. The law is the foundational FDI architecture for Vision 2030 and pairs with the 30-year RHQ tax-incentive package and the 2021 Mining Investment Law.

Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), issued under Royal Decree M/19 (16 September 2021) and substantively amended by Royal Decree M/148 (27 March 2023), entered into force on 14 September 2023 with a one-year transition period that ended on 14 September 2024 — at which point the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) became the binding regulator with full enforcement powers. Alongside the Implementing Regulations and the Regulations on the Transfer of Personal Data Outside the Kingdom (both issued 7 September 2023), SDAIA published in 2024 a set of four pre-approved Standard Contractual Clauses templates (C2C, C2P, P2P, P2C) governing cross-border transfers. The regime establishes consent requirements, DPO appointment, a 72-hour breach notification duty, and prior-clearance / SCC-or-BCR-style conditions on personal-data exports out of Saudi Arabia.

On 18 October 2022, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Saudi Arabia's National Industrial Strategy (NIS) under the Vision 2030 umbrella, with delivery led by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM). The strategy prioritises 118 segments within 12 industrial sub-sectors (including downstream chemicals, automotive, aerospace, machinery, and metals), identifies more than 800 investment opportunities estimated at ~USD 266bn, and sets binding 2030/2035 targets: triple manufacturing GDP by 2030, raise industrial exports to SAR 557bn (~USD 148bn), bring cumulative additional investment to SAR 1.3 trillion, and grow factories from ~10,000 to ~36,000 by 2035. NIS sits alongside the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP, 2019) and the Public Investment Fund's strategic-sector mandates as the third leg of the Kingdom's non-oil-economy build-out.

The GCC Bureau of Technical Secretariat for Anti-Injurious Practices in International Trade (GCC-TSAIP) imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty of 33% on imports of aluminium alloy plates, sheets and strip (HS 7606.12.00 and 7606.92.00) originating in China, effective across all six GCC member states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman). The investigation was initiated 29 April 2020 and the definitive measure entered into force on 22 July 2021 (GAFT imposed date), with expiry on 21 July 2026. A sunset review was initiated on 21 April 2026; the duty remains in force pending its outcome.

Royal Decree No. M/140, dated 19 Shawwal 1441H (11 June 2020), promulgated Saudi Arabia's Mining Investment Law, replacing the 2004 Mining Investment Law (Royal Decree M/47). The law establishes a modern licensing framework under the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM) and the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), introduces five license categories (reconnaissance, exploration, exploitation, small-mine, building-materials quarry), permits 100% foreign ownership in mining, and sets out royalty and fiscal terms aligned with Vision 2030's goal of developing an estimated $1.3 trillion in identified mineral wealth. The law took effect on 1 January 2021 and serves as the statutory parent of every Saudi mining licensing round and strategic minerals initiative launched since that date.