21 Jun 2022 13:47

Linde exits JV for localizing production of coil-wound heat exchangers, company to continue manufacturing equipment

MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - Germany's Linde GmbH has exited a joint venture for manufacturing coil-wound heat exchangers for the gas-processing industry and LNG in Russia, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

The JV was established in 2017, with JSC Power Machines initially acting as the Russian partner, later replaced by PJSC Severstal .

Severstal's 50% stake transferred in April to RusChemAlliance, a JV between Gazprom and RusGazDobycha, which operates the construction of the gas processing complex as part of the ethane-containing gas-processing complex in Ust-Luga, Leningrad Region, and also one of the potential consumers of the JV's products. RusChemAlliance assumed sole ownership of the LLC on June 17.

The JV simultaneously changed names with the changes in ownership from Linde Power Machines to Linde Severstal to the current Northern Technologies LLC. The company also changed general directors in June from Christoph Seeholzer to Pavel Krylov, former head of Gazprom's Department 335 for technological development, and current first deputy general director of RusChemAlliance.

The JV's purpose is to manufacture from five to six coil-wound heat exchangers per year, and it began full output capacity in 2020.

Linde previously reported that it had suspended implementing new projects in Russia, and that it was curtailing operating activities in the country, the production of industrial gases, and engineering projects.

The press service of the Complex for Processing Ethane-containing Gas (CPEG) has told Interfax that RusChemAlliance LLC "has completed the acquisition of a 100-percent stake in Northern Technologies LLC. Technological expertise has been consolidated, and the required equipment [heat exchangers for gas processing and large-tonnage gas liquefaction] will continue to be manufactured at the location."

"Changes in the participant composition of Northern Technologies LLC will not affect the progress for implementing the project to construct the CPEG in the Ust-Luga region," CPEG assured.