A vanadium-recycling complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, had passed 55% construction completion by the end of September, AMG Critical Materials said on November 5. The facility is being developed to recover vanadium from refinery waste and produce materials for industrial use.
Construction and project design
Advanced Circular Materials Company is developing the planned Supercenter at Jubail Industrial City. It was established by Shell & AMG Recycling and Saudi Arabia’s United Company for Industry; Shell & AMG Recycling brings a connection to European industrial technology and processing expertise.
The facility is designed to process refinery residues, including gasification ash and spent catalysts, into higher-value products. Planned output includes ferrovanadium for alloy steel and high-purity vanadium oxide for large-scale energy-storage applications.
The project aims to recover metal value from refinery waste rather than rely entirely on conventionally mined raw materials, while providing Saudi Arabia with a domestic vanadium-processing route. Its first phase had recorded 900,000 working hours without a lost-time accident.
Construction was continuing despite regional geopolitical pressures affecting the availability of materials and equipment. The reported progress is for the end of the third quarter and does not mean the plant has entered commissioning or commercial production.
Products and market links
Vanadium is used in metallurgy and energy storage. Ferrovanadium improves certain grades of steel, while vanadium-based electrolyte materials are used in redox-flow batteries, which are suited to applications requiring repeated cycling and longer discharge durations.
The project’s immediate connection to Europe is through its participating businesses and processing expertise, not a confirmed new import stream. AMG Critical Materials identified no newly signed European supply contract, binding offtake agreement, fresh project-level financing or fixed date for first commercial production.
AMG Vanadium, a division of AMG, posted third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of approximately 14.2 million euros, down from approximately 17.3 million euros a year earlier. Those divisional results are operating context, not earnings from the Saudi complex, which remained under construction during the reporting period.
The complex is intended to convert refinery by-products into industrial materials for steel and energy storage. Its relevance to European buyers will become clearer when commissioning, product specifications, contracted sales and physical delivery routes are confirmed.
