Praxair Volgograd LLC, Moscow, Russia, a subsidiary of Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX), is opening its first large-scale air separation plant in Volgograd, an industrial region in southern Russia. This plant will produce oxygen, nitrogen and compressed air for Kaustik, a division of the Nikochem Group, under a long-term contract.

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The highly-efficient plant has a capacity of 350 tons per day and will reduce Kaustik’s electricity consumption at the site by approximately 30 percent. The plant will also supply merchant products to local markets such as metals, metal fabrication, glass, automotive, food, electronics and health care.

Praxair has invested in four major projects in Russia with combined production capacity of more than 3,500 tons per day of gaseous and liquid oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and argon. The new air separation units and hydrogen plants will be located in the Volgograd, Sverdlovsk, Rostov and Nizhniy Novgorod regions and will supply a diverse group of customers in the steel, chemical and glass industries.