Italian foundry equipment maker Danieli has been awarded a contract to build a steel plant in Saudi Arabia worth 800 million riyals ($213.3 million), the firm's Saudi client Al-Rajhi Steel said on Saturday.

Al-Rajhi Steel, one of Saudi Arabia's three largest steel companies, signed the agreement with Danieli to build the 1 million tonne per year steel rebar plant on Thursday, it said in a statement.

The plant, which will be located in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, will take 22 months to build and will start production in November, 2011, it added.-Reuters