By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: January 20, 2008
In a massive city of steel at the edge of the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia is trying to move beyond oil to become an industrial power. Amid a forest of cranes, towers and beams rising from the desert, more than 38,000 workers from China, India, Turkey and beyond have been toiling for two years in unforgiving conditions — often in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees — to complete one of the world’s largest petrochemical plants in record time.
By the end of the year, this massive city of steel at the edge of the Red Sea will take its place as a cog of globalization: plastics produced here will be used to make televisions in Japan, cellphones in China and thousands of other products to be sold in the United States and Europe. Construction costs at the plant, which spreads over eight square miles, have doubled to $10 billion because of shortages in materials and labor. The amount of steel being used is 10 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/business/worldbusiness/20saudi.html?ex=1358485200&en=f4692137dc3ed49c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
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