Air Liquide (AL) and Jiangsu Shagang Group, the largest private steel enterprise in China, recently have signed a new long-term agreement for the supply of industrial gases in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, China.

AL will invest around 100 million euros towards the construction of a world-scale ASU on the site, where it already operates two other ASUs. Under a 20 year-long contract, AL will build, own and operate a new ASU with a daily capacity of 3,800 tonnes of oxygen. It is the largest single ASU for the steel industry in the world, as well as AL’s largest ASU in China.

When the new unit starts up at the end of 2023, it will bring the total installed oxygen capacity to over 8,000 tonnes per day on the site.

This new ASU will also be a new source of krypton and xenon to address the growing demand of the Electronics industry, as well as other air gases for our industrial merchant activity in China.