How a manufacturer gets registered with two of Saudi Arabia's biggest industrial buyers, checked against their own portals and manuals. Where their local content programmes fit. And what registration does for you once you have it.
Both run supplier registration through SAP Ariba. At SABIC you either self register on the SABIC Supplier Portal or get invited, then complete the registration questionnaires within 90 days of the invite. At Maaden you register from the Maaden Supplier Portal, create or link a SAP Business Network account and complete the Supplier Registration Questionnaire. Both run local content programmes alongside, NUSANED at SABIC and Tharwah at Maaden. Registration gets you into the database. It does not get you the order.
I have a named SABIC win, a £500K order at SABIC Sharq. I have not sold into Maaden, and I am not going to pretend I have. What follows on Maaden comes from Maaden's own portal and manuals. What follows on winning work comes from thirty years of selling industrial equipment into process plants and the EPC contractors who build them.
SABIC's registration guide sets out two methods for a new supplier without a SABIC vendor code. You self register, or SABIC invites you. If you are invited, you skip the form and start at the Ariba invitation.
Be precise about your product and service categories. They are how buyers find you, and a vague registration gets you found for nothing in particular.
Maaden says supplier registration is the first step in establishing a business relationship with Maaden and its affiliates. The Register Now button on its Supplier Portal goes to a SAP Ariba self registration page. Maaden's registration manual, last updated in July 2026, then sets out the route:
Two more things from Maaden's portal. All suppliers are required to review and comply with its supplier cybersecurity requirements. And for registration questions, Maaden points you to its Supplier Relationship Management team at srm@maaden.com.sa.
Both companies take local content seriously, and both publish it.
SABIC and NUSANED. SABIC says it has run its local content programme since 2017, through platforms including NUSANED and Nusaned Investment. Its audited Local Content Score from the LCGPA rose 17% to 56.4% for the 2024 financial year, local content requirements went into 44 contracts, and more than 300 companies have graduated through NUSANED since 2018. Graduates include factories such as Elsewedy Electric and Rotork Saudi Arabia.
Maaden and Tharwah. Maaden launched its Tharwah local content programme in 2022, with a stated focus that includes increasing the participation of Saudi businesses in its supply chain. It publishes a list of investment localisation opportunities that includes pumps, valves, bearings, gaskets and seals, pipes and fittings, filtration, grinding media, coating paints and engineering services. Tharwah has its own registration on Maaden's site.
If your product is on that list, read it as a signal, not a threat. It tells you where Maaden wants to buy locally, and a local presence, partner or assembly plan becomes part of the commercial case. My guides to MISA investment registration and international distributors cover the two usual routes to a Saudi footprint.
A petrochemical complex or a mining and processing site spends money three ways. The operating plant buys spares, consumables and replacements. Sustaining capital upgrades or expands an existing asset. And new builds are run, almost always, through an EPC contractor. Registration gets you into the database for all three. It does not put you in front of the maintenance engineer, the project team or the contractor's package buyer who actually decides.
The specification is the biggest lever. Get into it early and the odds swing hard your way. Miss it and work is still won from the supplier list through the relationship, the budget and a sharp commercial case. On capital projects, remember the EPC contractor runs its own supplier qualification as well. My guide to EPC procurement covers how they buy.
Registration gets you permission to be considered. A named contact with a live problem gets you considered.
SABIC and Maaden decide who they register. Nobody can sell you a registration, and I do not. What I do is make sure you go in with the right categories, the right documents and a local content story that holds up, then do the commercial work that turns a registration into orders: the plant contacts, the specification and the EPC contractors. Read my piece on breaking into SABIC and Maaden, the Aramco vendor registration guide and Saudi Arabia and Aramco for the wider market.
There are two routes. You can self register by completing the supplier self registration form on the SABIC Supplier Portal, or SABIC can invite you. Either way, you then receive an invitation from SAP Ariba, create or link an Ariba Network account, and complete SABIC's registration questionnaires. Once SABIC approves, your status becomes Registered.
Yes. SABIC's registration guide says registration questionnaires must be submitted within 90 days from the invite date.
Through the Maaden Supplier Portal, which links to a SAP Ariba self registration page. Maaden's July 2026 registration manual describes creating or linking a SAP Business Network account, then completing the Supplier Registration Questionnaire, which includes sections on prerequisite certificates and attachments and on qualification by supplier type. Maaden emails you when the registration is approved.
Maaden's Supplier Portal directs general enquiries and registration support to its Supplier Relationship Management team at srm@maaden.com.sa.
They are the local content programmes of SABIC and Maaden. SABIC says more than 300 companies have graduated through NUSANED since 2018. Maaden launched Tharwah in 2022 and lists investment localisation opportunities including pumps, valves, bearings, gaskets and seals, pipes and fittings, and filtration.
No. Registration gets you into the supplier database and lets you be considered. Which products are used is decided at the plant, in the specification and, on capital projects, by the EPC contractor.
Sources: SABIC Supplier Portal · SABIC, Ariba registration guide for new suppliers · SABIC Integrated Annual Report 2025, local content · Maaden Supplier Portal · Maaden, SAP Ariba supplier registration manual, July 2026 · Maaden, Tharwah. Checked 12 November 2026. Processes change, so confirm current steps on the official portals before you apply.
If you are on the list and the orders are not coming, the problem is the plant contacts, the specification and the EPC route, not the paperwork. That is the part I own.