Messer cements its long-standing partnership with the steel producer TMK with the construction of an air separation plant in Romania.

Messer is moving with its customers: On the site of the steel pipe producer TMK in Resita, Romania, the Messer Group is building an air separation plant for the production of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon at a cost of 20 million euros. The Russian pipe manufacturer TMK (Trubnaja Metallurgitscheskaja Kompanija) is the second largest producer of steel pipes world-wide. The listed company is planning investments amounting to about 500 million US dollars for modernization and re-fitting of its facilities in 2007.With the commissioning of the air separation plant in Resita, planned for July 2009, Messer will for the first time have its own production plant in Romania. The air separator will supply oxygen, nitrogen, and argon for local manufacturers and medical oxygen for hospitals and the home care of patients. "Instead of geographical expansion, we are going for growth in our core markets in Europe and Asia, mostly in close collaboration with local industry," says owner Stefan Messer. Messer, the largest owner-directed industrial gas specialist, is currently constructing air separation plants in Spain, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland, and China with a total investment volume of 180 million euros. The air separation plants operated by Messer are being constructed by the German plant manufacturer Cryogenic Engineering, a joint venture between Messer and the Chinese firm HangYang.