(openPR) - The industrial gases specialist Messer officially opened its first production unit for industrial gases in Vietnam on October 6, 2010. The facility is today the largest air separation plant in Vietnam with a capacity of 300 tons per day of oxygen and 510 tons per day of nitrogen. The plant supplies all the gas requirements of Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company’s new integrated steelworks complex in Kinh Mon Town, Hai Duong Province. Messer has invested 20 million US dollars in the production facility, and also wants to supply manufacturers across numerous industries in the north of Vietnam with the gases that are produced here.

Messer Haiphong, soon to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Messer Group, was incorporated in 1997. In October 2007, Messer Haiphong signed a contract with Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company to supply the steelworks with oxygen, nitrogen and argon – the industrial gases needed for steel-making – via a pipeline.

Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company is owned by the listed Hoa Phat Group, one of Vietnam’s most successful companies. The plant in Kinh Mon is the Hoa Phat Group’s second largest steelworks. In addition to steel-making, industrial gases are also used in the processing and manufacture of a whole range of everyday items, including food, medicines, plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, water storage tanks, cars, light bulbs, etc.

Messer is one of the leading industrial gas companies, and is active in over 30 countries in Europe and Asia, as well as Peru, with over 60 operating companies. Its international activities are managed from Frankfurt am Main, whilst management of core technical functions – logistics, engineering, production and applications engineering – is undertaken from Krefeld. In 2009, about 5,200 employees generated a consolidated turnover of €797 million.
From acetylene to xenon, the Messer Group has one of the most diverse product portfolios on the market – it produces industrial gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, helium, shielding gases for welding, specialty gases, medical gases and many different gas mixtures.
The Messer Group has state-of-the-art research and competence centers in which it develops applied technologies for the use of gases in almost every sector of industry, in food technology and environmental technology, medicine as well as research and science.

Messer Group GmbH
Vice President
Corporate Communications
Diana Buss
Gahlingspfad 31
47803 Krefeld

Phone: +49 (0) 2151 7811-251
Fax: +49 (0) 2151 7811-598
Email: diana.buss@messergroup.com
www.messergroup.com