On 17 April 2017, Messer, the German industrial gases specialist, and Hoa Phat Steel, the largest steel producer in Vietnam, signed a contract in Hanoi for the construction of two plants for the production of industrial gases. The contract is to run for a period of 25 years. Messer will supply the air gases oxygen, nitrogen and argon to the steelworks by pipeline. Both plants are to start operation in the Dung Quat economic zone in southern Central Vietnam in November of 2018. Total production capacity amounts to 80,000 standard cubic metres of oxygen and 160,000 standard cubic metres of nitrogen per hour, which corresponds to around five and ten road tanker loads. This makes it the largest facility for the production of industrial gases in Vietnam. Messer is investing a total of over 90 million US dollars.

Apart from supplying the steelworks, gases in liquid form will be supplied to local market, such as the shipbuilding industry and automotive suppliers. "By cultivating our partnerships and further increasing our supply of the local market, we've managed to generate impressively strong growth in Vietnam over the past year", says Stefan Messer, owner and CEO of the Messer Group. Messer achieved sales of over 40 million euros in Vietnam last year.

Messer has been cooperating with the Hoa Phat Group since 2007. At that time, the company invested 20 million US dollars in the construction of an air separation plant in order to cover the gas needs of Hoa Phat Steel's first integrated plant. A second plant went into operation in 2012, increasing Messer's production capacity in Vietnam by around 150 per cent. The industrial gases manufacturer commissioned its third air separation plant in Vietnam in 2016. With a production capacity of 27,000 standard cubic metres of oxygen and 54,000 standard cubic metres of nitrogen per hour, it was the largest industrial gases plant in North Vietnam at that time. All production plants were constructed on Hoa Phat Steel's site in the province of Hai Duong.