Desert Sand, Imported Strength: Why Saudi Megaprojects Buy Sand Abroad

Saudi Arabia sits on the Rub’ al Khali—one of the world’s largest sand seas—but its grains are too wind-polished to bind in cement. River and quarry sands are jagged and good for concrete, while aeolian desert sand behaves like ball bearings in wet concrete, leading engineers to import sands from Australia and Scotland (and to explore alternatives like Sandcrete). The article notes the tiny scale of imports relative to vast demand, the salt content issue, and where Gulf megaprojects like NEOM and The Line fit into a broader global sand crunch, calling it a paradox of abundance and unusability that helps explain long supply chains for a material that seems plentiful.