Messer invests at Salzgitter AG

Industrial gas specialist Messer is constructing a production plant at Salzgitter AG for approx. EUR 50 million, thereby exceeding the company’s own expectations for its return to the domestic German market.

The Messer Group has signed a contract with Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, a subsidiary of Salzgitter AG, to construct and operate an air separation plant. This contract has a validity period of 15 years. The industrial gas specialist will invest around EUR 50 million in the production plant for the industrial gases oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

The air separation plant on the site of Salzgitter AG will supply more than 30,000 standard cubic metres of oxygen and optionally 40,000 standard cubic metres of nitrogen to the steelworks in gaseous form. Messer will also produce oxygen, nitrogen and argon in liquid form to cater for the local market. Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH plans to expand its crude steel production at its location in Salzgitter. At the same time production of electric steel at the location of the subsidiary Peiner Träger GmbH in Peine will also be increased. More technical oxygen will be required to guarantee the increased production volume, and Messer will cover this need by building its air separation plant in Salzgitter. The site in Peine which is approx. 30 kilometres away will also be supplied with oxygen from Salzgitter over a new pipeline.

“The partnership with Salzgitter AG opens up totally new potential for our activities in Germany,” explains Stefan Messer. “We are certain that we will be able to gain the trust of our partner not only on account of our technical concept, but also through our dynamic plans for our return to the German market. After a four-year absence from our domestic market the operational start-ups of our air separators have put us in a position to establish ourselves as a supplier of industrial gases again in the west, north and east of Germany.” In 2004 Stefan Messer sold Messer Griesheim GmbH. Because of a contractual non-competition clause he was not allowed to conduct any business in Germany until May 2007; until 6 May 2008 he was also forbidden from using the Messer brand in connection with producing and marketing industrial gases in Germany.

In October 2007 Stefan Messer signed a long-term supply agreement with Deutsche Edelstahlwerke to construct an air separation plant and a filling plant in Siegen. The production plant will begin operations in the autumn of 2009. The return to the German market is thus initially focused on the industrial regions west and southwest. The company is now planning to create another 30 jobs in the region of Salzgitter, half of these in the gas production and filling sector.

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 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.

This release was published on openPR.