Air Liquide launches 1.6-bln ruble industrial gases plant in Saratov
SARATOV. July 14 (Interfax) - LLC Air Liquide Balakovo, the French company Air Liquide's subsidiary in the Saratov region, commissioned an industrial gases plant on Monday, the press secretary of the region's Industry and Energy Ministry, Svetlana Korsukova, told Interfax.
"The total investment in the construction amounted to 1.6 billion rubles. The design capacity is 300 tonnes of liquid oxygen a day. The enterprise will also produce nitrogen and argon in liquid and gas form and oxygen in gas form," Korsukova said.
The construction of the plant began in October 2011 for the provision of industrial gases to Severstal's steel mill for the production of long products.
The enterprise's plans include deliveries for glass production, to machine-building and metal-working enterprises and also to medical institutes, Korsukova said.
Sergei Lisovsky, the head of the region's Industry and Energy Ministry, told Interfax that before the Air Liquide plant was commissioned, industrial gases were acquired at the Volgograd oxygen plant. "Now our enterprises have the opportunity to receive products that were produced in the region. This production could be expanded in the event that internal and external demand grow," he said.
Air Liquide produces gases for industry, healthcare and environmental protection. It began working in Russia in 1989, when it opened an office in Moscow. The group began supplying technical gases in 2005.
Air Liquide and steel giant Severstal signed a long-term contract in April 2011 to supply technical gases to the Severstal steel mill in Balakovo, where Severstal plans to build a mini-mill costing more than $600 million with capacity for 1 million tonnes of long products per year at the end of July this year.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2012 granted a long-term loan of 800 million rubles for the French company's subsidiary to build the plant in Balakovo.
