Feb 27 2009
The Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) Bokaro facility was the site of an inauguration ceremony last week to celebrate INOX Air Products Ltd.’s (INOXAP) recently completed air separation unit (ASU). INOX Air Products, Air Products’ (NYSE: APD) joint venture company in India, commercialized the ASU supporting the steelmaker in late 2008 for the SAIL plant in the state of Jharkand. SAIL is the largest integrated iron and steel-making company in India and Bokaro is one of its largest integrated production plants.
The ASU facility, operating under a long-term contract, is supplying SAIL with over 1,250 tons per day of oxygen and over 1,500 tons per day of nitrogen, as well as providing argon for the Bokaro site’s steelmaking operation. The industrial gases are being used by SAIL for enhancing its steel producing capacity at Bokaro, as the growth of the Indian economy has led to a record expansion of India’s steel sector.
After inaugurating the ASU, SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant managing director, Mr. VK Srivastava, congratulated the INOXAP team for successful completion of the project and expressed confidence that the new ASU would play a key role in helping BSL (this acronym not defined previously but is abbrev. for “Bokaro Steel Ltd”) enhance its productivity and efficiency.
“The SAIL Bokaro ASU facility continues INOXAP’s growth in supporting India’s major steel producers, and continues our leading presence in providing industrial gases to our India customers,” said Pavan Jain, managing director of INOXAP.
“This is INOXAP’s first major facility in the eastern India region. I congratulate the entire team on this accomplishment,” said Robert Dixon, vice president of Global Merchant Gases for Air Products. “We look forward to our long-term relationship with SAIL and supplying them products from this facility as well as others in the future.”
INOXAP’s new facility marks the fourth major air separation on-site facility that it has provided to the India steel sector in the last four years. The India steelmaking community has grown from a production level of approximately 35 million tons per year to approximately 55 million tons per year over this period and continues to expand operations on a global basis.