August 22, 2008

Air Products JV to supply ASUs to Shadeed Iron & Steel

Pennsylvania based Air Products & Chemicals Inc announced the signing of a contract to supply two new air separation units to Shadeed Iron & Steel's production plant at Sohar Industrial Port of Oman. Air Products & Chemicals Inc said that the contract would be executed by the joint venture partnership between the Air Products and Abdullah Hashim Group of Saudi Arabia. However, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the deal, the company will provide ASUs that will supply oxygen and nitrogen for iron and steel production at the Shadeed Iron & Steel facilities at Sohar in Oman. The ASUs, to be designed and engineered by Air Products in the United Kingdom, are scheduled to come on stream in August 2008.

Shadeed Iron and Steel Co is the first iron and steel plant in Oman and the Gulf region's third iron and steel plant. The plant shall comprise of DRI plant of 1.5 million tonnes per annum capacity and steel melt shop of 1.1 million tones per annum capacity of steel billets.

Air Products also indicated having supplied a number of ASU production facilities to Abdullah Hashim Group during their relationship in the past 30 years and combined regularly to supply ASUs to other clients in the region.

The Abdullah Hashim Group is a privately owned Saudi company, which has been in business for more than half a century with turnover exceeding USD 450 million. The company employs more than 1700 people.

Air Products serves customers in industrial, energy, technology and healthcare markets in over 40 countries, and has annual revenues of USD 10 billion. Air Products also employs around 22,000 employees.