In what has been a busy month for Air Liquide, the company has now announced a long-term agreement with RusVinyl; a joint venture firm combining the Russian chemical company Sibur and the Belgian PolyVinyl Chloride (PVC) major Solvin.
According to the new agreement, Air Liquide will invest, build and operate a new Air Separation Unit which will boast a daily capacity of more than 350 tonnes of oxygen. The facility will be located in Kstovo and is scheduled to start-up at the end of 2012. Furthermore, Air Liquide will produce a large quantity of liquid air gases, such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, to meet regional demand.
The investment amounts to €60m which covers the production facility and complete supply chain. Guy Salzgeber, Member of the Air Liquide Group Executive Committee and Vice President of North and Central Europe, commented, “We are very proud of RusVinyl and its shareholders have selected Air Liquide to become their long-term partner for their new facility in Nizhny Novgorod region. This new investment allows us to expand our activities on a long term basis with a major player of the Chemical Industry in Russia and create a solid basis for future developments of gas sales in a very promising economic region of Russia.”
This agreement illustrates the dynamism of the Russian Chemical Industry and ratifies reports which predict growth over the next decade. PVC is a widely used polymer which finds applications across several industries; from plumbing to clothes. Furthermore, PVC consumption in the country represents around 1m tons per year, part of which must be currently imported.
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