(openPR) - Consuming vast quantities of the atmospheric gases nitrogen, oxygen and argon, the blast furnaces in the Chinese Xiangtan steel works in the province of Hunan are now to be served by a fifth air-separation unit. This latest addition will ensure sufficiently high availability of industrial gases to enable Xiangtan to boost its annual steel production from its current 6.5 million tonnes. Oxygen promotes combustion and is blasted into the furnaces in order to attain the high temperatures required for melting steel.

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

Messer is a leading industrial gas enterprise with more than 60 companies operating in over 30 countries in Europe and Asia as well as in Peru, including non-consolidated companies. The international activities are headed from Frankfurt/Main, while the central technical functions of Logistics, Engineering and Production as well as Applied Technology are controlled from Krefeld. The Messer Group had more than 4,400 employees in 2007. 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.