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Air Liquide Signs Long-term Contracts with Two Steel Producers in China
Feb. 12, 2010 Air Liquide says it will invest €75 million to support new long-term contracts the company just signed with steel producers Bohai Steel Group and Jianbang Group, both in China.
The first supply contract will provide oxygen and nitrogen to Bohai Steel Group in Tangshan, Hebei Province (near Tianjin) from a large 2200-tonnes-per-day Air Separation Unit. For the contract with Jianbang Group in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, Air Liquide will invest in an 800-tonnes-per-day oxygen unit.
Both units will use the latest high-reliability and low-energy technologies from Air Liquide Hangzhou, Air Liquide’s engineering center in China. They are scheduled to start up in the second quarter of 2011.
“We thank Tangshan Bohai Steel Group and Shanxi Jiangbang Group for their trust,” commented Jean-Marc de Royere, Senior Vice-President Asia-Pacific, and a member of the Executive Committee. “Those successes illustrate Air Liquide’s ability to meet customer requirements in China for safety, reliability, low-energy and short construction periods. Emerging Economies are a growth driver of Air Liquide.”
China is the world’s largest steel producing country, with a production that rose 14% to a record 568 million tonnes in 2009 - nearly half the world’s production. Air Liquide anticipates that oxygen can play a key role in enhancing productivity as China continues to focus on better utilizing its steelmaking capacities.
Air Liquide is a world leader in gases for industry, health and the environment, and is present in over 75 countries with 43,000 employees. Oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and rare gases have been at the core of Air Liquide’s activities since its creation in 1902. In 2008, the Group’s revenues amounted to €13.1 billion, of which almost 80% were earned outside France.
Air Liquide employs 2500 people in China, with operations in key industrial areas. Air Liquide returned to China in the 1970s to supply air separation units and began to set up gas operations in 1990.