How many metal fabrication workshops are in Saudi Arabia?
Structural steel, metal products and fabrication workshops.
30.6K
active registrations list metal fabrication & steel works activities — 2.1% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
30,597 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list metal fabrication & steel works activities as of 16 September 2026 — 2.1% of all classified registrations, the 34th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
5,213 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +10.4% on 2024, in line with the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (9,756), Jeddah (2,702), Dammam (2,002) lead. Relative to its size, Taif is the most concentrated: metal fabrication workshops make up 1.5× the share they hold nationally.
45.2% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 100,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 30,597
- 2.1% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 5,213
- +10.4% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 45.2%
- 13,817 of 30,597
- Median company capital
- SAR 100k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where metal fabrication workshops are registered
Column height: metal fabrication workshops by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh9,7561.0×
- Jeddah2,7020.8×
- Dammam2,0021.5×
- Makkah1,1730.8×
- Taif1,0211.5×
- Madinah9660.8×
- Buraydah8381.1×
- Khobar8371.2×
- Jubail6070.7×
- Najran4110.5×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Metal fabrication & steel works: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Blacksmith workshops12,084Activity code 251151
- Aluminum workshops4,029Activity code 251160
- Metal turning1,896Activity code 259230
- Window and door manufacturing and installation1,308Activity code 251154
- Laser metal cutting and engraving695Activity code 259220
- Metal etching and coating637Activity code 259212
- Metal structures and parts manufacturing598Activity code 251111
- Metal forging, pressing, casting and rolling597Activity code 259110
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- Sole proprietorship16,72754.7%
- LLC13,44543.9%
- JSC2500.8%
- General partnership520.2%
- Foreign branch390.1%
- SJSC380.1%
- Limited partnership300.1%
- GCC branch14<0.1%
- Other2<0.1%
Common questions
How many metal fabrication workshops are there in Saudi Arabia?
30,597 active commercial registrations list metal fabrication & steel works activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most metal fabrication workshops?
Riyadh, with 9,756 — 31.9% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 2,702.
Is the number of metal fabrication workshops growing?
5,213 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +10.4% on 2024, in line with the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in metal fabrication & steel works in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in metal fabrication & steel works?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.