Rosenbauer, a leading manufacturer of firefighting and disaster protection vehicles, said it has clinched a Saudi ministry contract worth 245.3 million euros ($320 million) for supply of fire engineering equipment.

As per the contract, Rosenbauer will supply the Saudi Ministry of Interior fire engineering equipment and a total of 1,125 vehicles of various types and for various operational purposes such as are boats and other civil defence equipment, said a company statement.

Besides water tankers built to European Standards, the supply contract also comprises pumpers and rescue vehicles manufactured to US Standards, said the Austrian company.

In addition, heavy recovery vehicles, aerial ladder, boats and hydraulic rescue equipment have also been ordered. Most of the vehicles are to be produced at the Rosenbauer plants in Leonding, Lyons, Karlsruhe and Spain.

The order as a whole is be fulfilled in several part-deliveries spread across the next 30 months, i.e. through until mid-2014, said a top official.

'This success underlines Rosenbauer's industry-leading position yet again. Thanks to the highly satisfactory order trend over the past few months – and in contrast to negative developments in market - capacity utilization at our production units is assured for the next two years', remarked Rosenbauer executive board chairman Dr Dieter Siegel.

Dr Siegel said Saudi government has decided to launch an additional expansion program for the fire protection sector owing to to the rapid increase in its population.

'The program will involve building and fitting out 180 new fire-stations, mainly in urban areas. As well as this, some 6,000 extra firemen have been recruited and are currently undergoing training,' he added.

According to him, Rosenbauer's long-standing working relationship with Saudi clients is founded upon the high quality of its products, which have been developed in close collaboration with the customer to meet local requirements.-TradeArabia News Service