Why Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates Import Sand Despite Their Deserts

At first glance, it sounds like a bad joke: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, of all places, surrounded by sand as far as the eye can see, have millions of tonnes of sand shipped in every year. Yet this contradiction is not a luxury problem; it is a highly practical construction-material dilemma with global consequences.

Why desert sand fails on construction sites

When people think of Saudi Arabia or Dubai, they usually picture dunes, heat and fine sand. But this very desert sand is largely unsuitable for what is now being built across the Gulf at record speed: skyscrapers, artificial islands, glass façades, motorways and megacities such as Neom.

The explanation lies in a small detail: the shape of the grains. Desert sand has been polished by wind for thousands of years, leaving grains that are:

• very fine
• smooth and rounded
• often contaminated with dust and other particles

That is a problem for concrete. For concrete to become strong, sand grains need to lock together with cement and gravel. Rounded grains are more likely to slide past one another, rather than forming a stable framework.

Fine, rounded desert sand may look ideal at first glance, but in concrete it reduces the load-bearing capacity of entire buildings.

Engineers therefore rely on sandy materials taken from riverbeds, quarries or the seabed. The grains found there are more angular, with edges and corners. They interlock more effectively, increase compressive strength and make concrete less likely to crack.

The same issue applies to high-tech products such as glass and highly pure silicon dioxides that are indispensable to industry. Desert sand is often too fine, dusty and contaminated. Every year, the Emirates pay tens of millions of dollars for especially pure quartz sand – a high-end material that simply does not occur in the desert on their doorstep.

Billion-dollar projects consume sand from around the world

The Gulf monarchies are expanding rapidly. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have been turning into glittering metropolises for years. Behind every skyline lies an enormous appetite for building materials, above all sand. It is used not only in the concrete of skyscrapers, but also in:

• glass façades and windows
• asphalt for roads
• foundations, tunnels and bridges
• land reclamation for islands at sea

The figures are striking. For huge schemes such as the Palm Islands and the Burj Khalifa, Dubai used not only locally available marine sand, but also had tonnes of material delivered from countries including Australia and Egypt. The world’s tallest building alone required tens of thousands of tonnes of imported sand.

Estimates suggest that the Emirates consumed more than six million tonnes of sand in 2023 – much of it did not come from their own desert.

Saudi Arabia is scarcely behind. Vision 2030 is intended to make the country less dependent on oil, through futuristic cities such as Neom, vast industrial parks and new infrastructure across the kingdom. Every one of these projects depends on tonnes of sand as a basic ingredient.

How much sand do the Emirates really import?

Data on this trade is limited, but customs statistics offer an insight. The picture for the United Arab Emirates is surprising: it imports sand on a large scale, not only from distant regions but even from a neighbouring country.

United Arab Emirates (2023)	Origin	Value (US$ million)
Sand imports	–	40.6
Saudi Arabia	–	34.5
Egypt	–	1.39
Belgium	–	0.98
Estimated consumption	–	> 6 million tonnes

The Emirates alone therefore spent more than US$40 million buying sand that, in theory, lies in their own backyard – just in the wrong form and quality.

Global sand rush: when grains become scarce

The Gulf boom forms part of a wider problem. According to the UN, up to 50 billion tonnes of sand and gravel are used around the world each year. No other raw material, apart from water, is moved in such volumes. Cities are growing, roads and ports are being built, and coastlines are being reclaimed.

This demand has consequences:

• Riverbeds are dredged deeper, which can worsen flooding.
• Beaches shrink when sand is removed from them.
• Habitats for fish, birds and other animals are lost.
• Illegal sand pits and criminal networks emerge in some countries.

In India and parts of Africa, people already speak of the “sand mafia”. Beaches are looted at night, lorries carrying illegally extracted sand operate without permits, and authorities and local residents come under pressure.

Sand is no longer an insignificant building material, but a contested resource with its own shadow economy.

Why Gulf states cannot simply use more of their own sand

The obvious answer might be to extract more coastal sand from their own waters. But this has pitfalls too. Systematically removing sand from beaches or shallow coastal areas can cause erosion. Waves then reclaim the missing material from the shoreline itself. Holiday hotels can suddenly find themselves beside narrow, unstable strips of coast.

Many Gulf states therefore seek to protect especially sensitive areas or move sand extraction into deeper offshore waters. That raises costs, but reduces political and environmental pressure. For finer specialist grades and raw materials for glass, however, imports from countries with suitable deposits often remain the only option.

Initial alternatives: recycling and manufactured sand

Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have recognised how risky their dependence on imported sand is. Several strategies are therefore being pursued alongside the construction boom:

• Recycled concrete: Demolition material from old buildings is crushed, cleaned and used as aggregate in new concrete.
• Manufactured sand: Rock is mechanically crushed to a specified grain size. The resulting grains are angular and well suited to concrete.
• New building materials: Experiments are under way with geopolymers, lightweight concrete and binders that require less sand.
• Stricter standards: Regulations are intended to ensure materials are used more efficiently and less is wasted.

For Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia, “greener” building materials are playing an increasingly important role. Authorities publicly present this as a sustainable transition. At the same time, project lists continue to grow, and every new motorway, stadium and artificial lagoon again requires thousands of tonnes of aggregate.

What makes sand so valuable – and where it is used

Sand appears unremarkable in everyday life. In construction and industry, however, it plays a crucial role. Its key uses include:

• Concrete: Without sand, there are no foundations, floor slabs or structural shells.
• Glass: Windows, bottles and screens all begin with quartz sand.
• Electronics: Pure silicon derived from quartz sand is the basis for chips and solar modules.
• Infrastructure: Railway embankments, road sub-bases and tunnel stabilisation.

Demand is particularly sensitive in coastal regions. There, sand is used to extend cities into the sea, raise sea defences and artificially replenish beaches that would otherwise shrink because of climate change and rising sea levels. Every reclaimed luxury island in the Gulf therefore competes indirectly with coastal-protection schemes elsewhere in the world for the same resource.

How the problem could be eased over the long term

There are many possible approaches, from stricter environmental requirements to new construction concepts. Experts frequently identify three main levers:

• Less material per building: More streamlined structures, better structural engineering, and timber and hybrid construction methods can significantly reduce sand demand.
• Greater reuse: Rather than demolishing old buildings entirely, they can be converted or their components reused, saving new materials.
• Regional planning: Avoid building all major projects at the same time, reducing peaks in demand and extraction.

In the Gulf, two interests collide directly: the pursuit of global prestige through ever more spectacular projects, and efforts to become more sustainable. As long as megacities such as Neom and new island developments at sea remain planned, demand for suitable sand will stay high.

The seemingly absurd trade of selling sand to desert states demonstrates one thing above all: raw materials are defined not only by quantity, but also by quality and context. Billions of tonnes of unusable dune grains offer little help when the construction industry needs angular, load-bearing grains. The international sand market fills precisely this gap – along with all the economic opportunities and environmental risks attached to it.