Saudi giga-project developers are turning to local suppliers at an accelerating pace as disruption to import routes drives up the cost of bringing materials into the kingdom, a shift executives described during the Saudi Mega Projects 2026 conference in Riyadh last month, where Roshn said it now sources about 60 percent of its supplies domestically.
The master developer, owned by the Public Investment Fund, is building roughly 55,000 homes across Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, with around 34,000 workers on its sites in a single day last week, according to figures cited at the event. Roger Fatovic, Roshn's chief projects delivery officer, said the early phase of the war forced the company to revisit its logistics and supply chains, a review that «really opened up a lot of opportunities for local content», adding that the company is working to raise the local share further.
When Fatovic joined Roshn in 2019, almost everything the company used was imported. Suppliers are now building factories on site and moving overseas manufacturing into Saudi Arabia, while the developer is breaking work into smaller contracts instead of packages covering thousands of homes at a time, a change that widens the field for local bidders.
At the Qiddiya entertainment project southwest of Riyadh, chief development officer Andrew McDonough said the economic climate required closer cooperation with Saudi partners, which he expects to help overcome current difficulties in sourcing materials from outside the region. Mace Consult, which manages delivery of Qiddiya's upper plateau, including a 2034 World Cup stadium perched on a 200-metre cliff edge, has seen local sourcing rise sharply, according to its managing director for Mena, Chris Seymour, who said contractors are now ordering further in advance after experiencing far longer waits for imports.
The pivot toward domestic supply coincides with the Public Investment Fund's tightening of spending on some flagship projects, a move that is reshaping how developers across the kingdom plan procurement and engage local industry.