MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide (Paris:AI) and BASF, a world-leading chemical company, have signed a contract in South Korea’s Yeosu National Industrial Complex to extend the term of their existing agreements over the long term. Within this context, Air Liquide leveraged the start-up in 2020 of its fourth hydrogen and carbon monoxide unit in this major industrial complex to increase by 20% the contractual volumes dedicated to BASF, according to BusinessWire.
Air Liquide’s first contract with BASF in Yeosu was signed 20 years ago. Since then, Air Liquide has significantly developed its industrial footprint in the Yeosu basin, culminating in the construction of a state-of-the-art, highly efficient hydrogen and carbon monoxide plant designed and built by Air Liquide’s Engineering and Construction. This latest unit, which started up in 2020, is fully integrated with Air Liquide’s three other plants through its 40 km pipeline supply network in Yeosu to ensure the highest level of safety, reliability, efficiency, and flexibility to its customers.
Recognising this strong industrial set up and customer focus of Air Liquide, BASF has renewed its trust in Air Liquide by extending the existing contracts over the long term, and increasing its reserved capacity by +20%, further reinforcing the long-standing relationship between Air Liquide and BASF.
Francois Abrial, member of the Air Liquide Group’s Executive Committee supervising Asia-Pacific, said: “We are pleased to strengthen our long-term partnership with BASF, a leading global company and long-standing strategic customer of the Group, by extending and expanding further our collaboration in the Yeosu basin. This major contract is a demonstration of BASF’s trust and confidence in Air Liquide to create value and deliver long-term performance to our customers.”
Air Liquide has been present in South Korea since 1996, providing industrial gases and related services to major industries (petrochemicals, oil refining, steel, automotive, and renewable energy, etc). Today, Air Liquide operates 4 main affiliates in Korea: Air Liquide Korea for industrial gases & services as well as the hydrogen energy market, VitalAire Korea for Home healthcare equipment & services, Air Liquide Solutions Korea for electronic gases & services, and Air Liquide Advanced Materials Korea for cutting edge production and development of advanced materials.
A world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health, Air Liquide is present in 80 countries with approximately 67,000 employees and serves more than 3.7 million customers and patients. Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen are essential small molecules for life, matter and energy. They embody Air Liquide’s scientific territory and have been at the core of the company’s activities since its creation in 1902.
Air Liquide’s ambition is to be a leader in its industry, deliver long term performance and contribute to sustainability. The company’s customer-centric transformation strategy aims at profitable, regular and responsible growth over the long term. It relies on operational excellence, selective investments, open innovation and a network organization implemented by the Group worldwide. Through the commitment and inventiveness of its people, Air Liquide leverages energy and environment transition, changes in healthcare and digitization, and delivers greater value to all its stakeholders.
As MRC reported earlier, in September 2020, Air Liquide finalised an agreement with Sasol to acquire the biggest oxygen production site in the world with a plan to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 30%. After the announcement on July 29, the international major industry gas company has now entered into a business purchase agreement with Sasol to acquire the oxygen production site in Secunda, South Africa.
We remind that Sasol's world-scale US ethane cracker with the capacity of 1.5 mln tonnes per year reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol's new cracker, the heart of LCCP, is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities that came online and will provide feedstock to the company's six new derivative units at Sasol's Lake Charles multi-asset site.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
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