Air Liquide and Jiangsu Shagang Group, the largest private steel enterprise in China, signed a long-term agreement for the supply of industrial gases in Jiangsu Province, China. Air Liquide will invest approximately $118 million to build an air-separation unit (ASU) on the site, where it already operates two other ASUs. Under a 20-year contract, Air Liquide will build, own and operate the ASU, which has a daily capacity of 3,800 metric tons of oxygen. The company says it will be the largest single ASU for the steel industry in the world. When it starts up at the end of 2023, it will bring the total installed oxygen capacity to over 8,000 metric tons per day on the site.

Air Liquide announced a long-term supply agreement with Eastman Chemical Company to provide additional gaseous oxygen, nitrogen and syngas supporting the company’s production in Longview, Texas. Air Liquide will invest more than $160 million to build a new air-separation unit (ASU) and partial oxidation unit (POX) and modernize existing assets. With this agreement and additional production capacity of the ASU and POX, Air Liquide will supply Eastman gaseous oxygen and nitrogen, as well as syngas. The new ASU and POX will begin production in late 2021 and will be integrated into the existing facilities.

Linde announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Praxair Inc., will begin operating under the Linde name effective September 1. This name change reflects the company’s evolution following the merger of Praxair Inc. and Linde AG. The combined product and service portfolios of the new Linde offer customers more options to improve operational efficiency and plan for future growth. The primary customer contact for products and services will remain the same. Beginning September 1, information on the U.S. business can be found at www.LindeUS.com.

Air Liquide signed a long-term agreement with Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) to supply gaseous oxygen, nitrogen and argon to SDI’s electric-arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in Sinton, Texas. To support the agreement, Air Liquide plans to invest over $100 million to install an air-separation unit (ASU) on its Gulf Coast pipeline network in Ingleside, Texas, and extend its pipeline network to SDI’s site.

Just as we’ve done in the past with other topics, Industrial Heating will take a look at the most-viewed Vacuum/Surface Treating articles (in terms of page views) on our website. Data was collected for 12 months, from August 2018 to August 2019.

Messer will invest $38 million to build a new air-separation plant in Indianapolis, Ind. The production facility for oxygen, nitrogen and argon is scheduled to go into operation in early 2021. It will produce industrial and medical-grade gases for various sectors of the local and regional economy, including the metal industry. The investment is expected to create 23 new permanent jobs by the end of 2021. In addition, Messer estimates that 60 to 80 temporary local jobs will be created during the construction phase of the project.

Air Products held a construction celebration and ceremonial groundbreaking for its new global headquarters in Lehigh Valley, Pa. The facility is being built a little over 1 mile from its existing location on a 50-acre tract of property. Occupancy is targeted for summer 2021. The new location will be the base for approximately 2,000 employees with capacity for growth.

Air Liquide and thyssenkrupp will partner for a project to develop lower-carbon steel production. For the first time, hydrogen will be injected to partially replace pulverized coal at a large scale in the blast furnace during steel production. Air Liquide will ensure a stable supply of hydrogen from its 200-km network in the Rhine-Ruhr area. This will be implemented at one of the blast furnaces in thyssenkrupp ́s integrated steel mills in Duisburg, Germany. Thyssenkrupp aims at reducing CO₂ emissions in the production process by up to 20%.

Messer Group and CVC Capital Partners Fund VII acquired most of the North American gases business of Linde plc and certain Linde and Praxair business activities in South America, launching a new name in the Americas market. With over 70 production facilities and approximately 5,400 employees in five countries (U.S., Canada, Brazil, Colombia and Chile) across North and South America, Messer Americas is one of the largest industrial gas companies in the region. As part of The Messer Group, the company offers over 120 years of proven expertise in the safe and reliable production and delivery of industrial, medical and specialty gases.

To continue a trend we started in 2017, Industrial Heating will highlight a topic on our website and list the most-popular articles under that topic according to page views.