STEEL GRIPS online - Largest gas production unit in Russia launched

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May 10, 2012

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Largest gas production unit in Russia launched

Sep 10, 2007

Air Liquide Severstal has just launched the largest gas production unit in Russia. A joint venture created in 2005 between Air Liquide and the steel producer Severstal, Air Liquide Severstal has been set up within the Cherepovets steel complex, in the Vologda region, situated between Moscow and St Petersburg.

With a daily production capacity of 3,000 t of oxygen, it is the biggest gas unit in Russia and the largest air separation unit in the world dedicated to the steel industry. Its priority will be to supply the Severstal steel mill with high purity oxygen in addition to nitrogen and argon and it will also provide liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon to the Russian industrial market. Global investment amounts to EUR 100 million.

Designed and assembled at Cherepovets by the Air Liquide Engineering Department with qualified Russian subcontractors, this production unit will allow Severstal to increase its production of very high quality steel, in particular for the car industry.

Equipped with Air Liquide technology allowing reduced energy consumption, this production unit will contribute to the fight against global warming (which Russia entered itself into by signing the Kyoto Protocol) by saving 50,000 t/a of CO 2 emissions that is, the equivalent of the total CO 2 emissions of a town of 10,000 inhabitants. To illustrate its involvement in and contribution towards a sustainable environment, on the day of the launch, Air Liquide Severstal symbolically planted 100 trees on the Cherepovets site.

"The start-up of this new air separation unit is a major stage in the development of our large-scale investment program", emphasized Anatoly Kruchinin, a member of the JSC Severstal Administration Board and Managing Director of the Cherepovets steelwork company Severstal. "It will allow us to increase our production of steel on this site to 9.5 million t. We are very satisfied with our partnership with Air Liquide for the construction of a new industrial production unit and we intend to continue it within the framework of our joint venture Air Liquide Severstal".

At the launch of Air Liquide Severstal, Klaus Schmieder, Senior Executive Vice-President of the Group Air Liquide, told STEEL GRIPS "We are very happy and very proud of our partnership with Severstal, one of the world leaders in steel production. The commissioning of the Air Liquide Severstal production unit allows us to firmly anchor our position in Russia and to accompany an industrial sector that is in full expansion into the future. In accordance with our development strategy in expanding areas showing particular potential, we intend to increase our investment in Russia in the years to come."

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