US-listed technology company Energy Recovery plans to establish a desalination-equipment factory near Dammam Second Industrial City. The 3,750-square-metre facility will be the company’s first manufacturing site outside the United States and its first production operation in Saudi Arabia. Manufacturing is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027.

The plant will make Energy Recovery’s PX Pressure Exchanger devices, which are used to reduce electricity consumption in seawater reverse-osmosis desalination. Annual capacity is planned at 2,000 units, exceeding estimated Saudi demand of about 1,200 devices. Around 40 percent of production is expected to be exported to Gulf countries, Africa and Asia.

The Saudi Water Authority said the project will create more than 50 direct jobs and could contribute SR137 million, or about $36.54 million, to national gross domestic product by 2033. It is also expected to achieve a localisation rate above 80 percent across the product’s value chain. Energy Recovery will operate the facility through Energy Recovery Co., its wholly owned Saudi subsidiary.

The investment comes as Saudi Arabia expands private financing and local manufacturing in the water sector. Projects tendered by the Saudi Water Partnership Company have attracted SR56 billion in private investment and secured more than 10 million cubic metres of contracted desalination capacity per day. Officials expect the new facility to support technical training, supply-chain development and the transfer of manufacturing knowledge.

Energy Recovery has served the desalination industry for more than 30 years. Its pressure-exchange systems are used at plants producing 43.6 million cubic metres of fresh water each day. The company says the technology can reduce energy consumption in seawater desalination by as much as 60 percent and save customers an estimated $7.2 billion in energy costs annually.