South America: A new commercial success in steel

Air Liquide is pleased to announce a major commercial success in the growing Brazilian steel market. An international partnership consisting of Air Liquide Brazil; White Martins, a wholly owned subsidiary of Praxair Inc; and ThyssenKrupp MinEnergy, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ThyssenKrupp group, has signed a twenty-year agreement to supply industrial gases to ThyssenKrupp CSA Companhia Siderúgica, which is a joint venture between the German ThyssenKrupp Steel AG and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce of Brazil.

The mining and metals industry in Brazil has been undergoing an important transformation over the past several years. Increasing quantities of iron ore from its high quality deposits are being converted locally into steel to serve growing international markets. Steel manufacturing uses large quantities of industrial gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon to increase efficiency and product quality.

ThyssenKrupp CSA plans to construct a new integrated steel mill 60 kms south of Rio de Janeiro, which will begin operations in early 2009. It is expected to produce five million tonnes of steel slabs each year.

To meet the customer’s needs, Air Liquide Brazil will build and operate air separation units owned by Air Liquide and White Martins to supply the steel mill with the industrial gases, primarily oxygen. The units will also supply blast furnace air and compressed dry air to the steel complex. The investment will be shared by members of the partnership and will have a production capacity of 3,000 tonnes per day of oxygen.

Pierre Dufour, Executive Vice-President, and member of Air Liquide’s Executive Committee, stated: “We are happy to accompany ThyssenKrupp in this major new project which is a state of the art solution helping our customer to improve his efficiency. This important success reinforces our position in South America, demonstrating the dynamism and efficiency of our teams and the quality of the relations we forge with our customers, in particular, in the field of steel and metals manufacturing, throughout the world.”

Founded in 1945, Air Liquide Brazil employs over 700 people, and serves its customers from 25 manufacturing facilities across the country. Air Liquide Brazil’s business covers customers in steel manufacturing, chemicals and petrochemicals in major industrial basins, as well as various processing industries (metal, glass, food, laboratories, etc.) and health, both in hospitals and in patients’ homes.