Air Products announced on Monday that it made an agreement to build, own and operate a second air separation unit (ASU) to support the expansion of Big River Steel LLC at its Osceola mill in Arkansas.
The 250 ton / day unit is expected to start in January 2021 to supply oxygen, nitrogen and argon to Big River Steel and the merchant market, where demand in the food, metals, construction and stainless steel industries is increasing.
There was no disclosure of financial terms.
Since 2016, Air Products’ dedicated ASU has supplied Big River Steel at Osceola. In June 2018, Big River Steel announced that its scrap recycling and steel production facility will double its capacity to 3.3 million tons annually.
“Our ASU will be important to Big River’s operations and our expanded facility’s configuration will allow us to further enhance reliability of product supply to Big River and to increase our industrial gas supply to current and new merchant market customers,” said Marie Ffolkes, president, Americas at Air Products.
Big River Steel’s Chief Executive Officer David Stickler commented, “Big River Steel is pleased with Air Products’ performance and I look forward to expanding our relationship as Big River Steel doubles its steelmaking capacity.”
Across several application segments, Air Products currently owns and operates more than 300 air separation plants in more than 40 countries around the world. The company has sold, designed, and built more than 2,000 air separation plants worldwide, in addition to its own plants. The cryogenic offerings of Air Products range from plants with a capacity of 50 TPD to single train plants with oxygen production capacity beyond 4,000 TPD.
Source: Air Products
