(openPR) - Joint venture invests 100 million euros in China: Messer cooperates with Panzhihua Iron & Steel

Frankfurt am Main based company Messer, the world's largest privately managed industrial gas specialist, has entered into a cooperation agreement with the Chinese steel manufacturer Panzhihua Iron & Steel, part of the Pangang Group, for the construction of three production facilities for industrial gases and the acquisition of existing gas generating plants in the Chinese province of Sichuan. The joint venture is investing a combined amount of over 100 million euros. Messer holds a 60 percent stake in the company, which employs 500 people in Sichuan. The production plants for oxygen, nitrogen and argon, known as air separation units, supply gases for the steelworks belonging to the Panzhihua Group, the largest manufacturer of steel for track construction. The cooperation agreement has a duration of 30 years. Through this agreement, Messer is confirming its long-term commitment to the Chinese industrial gases market.

Panzhihua Iron & Steel is the most important steel producer in Western China and is the largest Chinese manufacturer of vanadium, which is used in steel manufacturing to improve quality. This represents the second joint venture between Messer and the Pangang Group: a cooperation with its subsidiary Chengdu Iron & Steel in Chengdu has already been in place for ten years. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province in central China and one of the economic centres in the west of the country.

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 2007, about 4,400 employees generated consolidated sales of €705 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