Air Liquide to invest in Tianjin market

Building on its joint venture company in Tianjin, China and the prospering market, Air Liquide has revealed the start-up of a long term supply of industrial gases to Sinopec Tianjin Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (TPCC) and an eventual investment of around €45m – and further investment of around €300m in future.

Air Liquide created a 50/50 joint venture company earlier this year with TPCC in Dagang Tianjin (Air Liquide TPCC), which has just taken over the air separation units (ASU) as well as the associated teams of the existing TPCC facility. It is also building a new 1,000 tpd ASU necessary for the new TPCC refinery and ethylene cracker, with the new ASU unit being manufactured by Air Liquide Hangzhou - the company’s engineering centre in China.

Jean-Pierre Duprieu, Senior Vice-President in charge of Asia Pacific and member of Air Liquide’s Executive Committee, commented, “We have now reached a very significant presence in Tianjin and we are continually strengthening it in this fast growing market. Air Liquide will continue to accelerate its investments in China with at least €300m per year from 2007-2011, three times more per year than during the 2004-2006 period.”