Air Products has signed long-term contracts with Tangshan Guo Feng Steel Co Ltd and Tangshan Fu Feng Steel Co Ltd in Tangshan, Hebei Province, China, to supply gaseous oxygen, nitrogen, and argon to their steel works.
Air Products will build and operate a new large air separation plant in Tangshan to provide this supply. The plant, which is scheduled to come on-stream in late 2007, will be primarily built by Air Products' engineering and manufacturing centers in China. This will be the second Air Products air separation plant in Tangshan supplying to Guo Feng and Fu Feng.
Tangshan, a major industrial city in Hebei Province, is one of the largest steel production centers in China. Its annual steel production exceeds 30 million tons. China's steel production is growing at close to 20% annually.
Air Products has been supplying customers in Tangshan since 1997 and is a gas supplier to the steel industry in northern China. The company was one of the first international industrial gas companies to enter China with a joint venture in 1987, and has established leading positions in key industrial markets in China.