French industrial gases group Air Liquide has won a “major” long-term contract with a group in China accounting for 12.0 percent of the production of nylon for the Chinese textile industry, Air Liquide said on Friday.
The contract is to supply a site operated by Chinese Group Fujian Shenyuan involved in the production of nylon.
The value of the contract was not divulged, but Air Liquide said that it would invest in a complex of eight units making industrial gases on the site operated by the Chinese company at Fujian in southeastern China.
The Chinese site makes caprolactam which is used in the production of the synthetic fibre nylon.
Fujian Shenyuan is a privately owned company. Its parent company owns two other companies which will use all of the caprolactam produced by Fujian Shenyuan and which accounts for 12.0 percent of the market for nylon filament used by the Chinese textile industry, Air Liquide said.
Air Liquide chief executive Jean-Marc de Royere said that the agreement enabled Air Liquide to provide solutions with high added value.
The French company operates more than 60 production units in China where it has 4,000 employees.
The units to be installed by Air Liquide will carry out various processes to supply hydrogen, azote and ammonia, and are due to begin producing at the beginning of 2016.
One of the processes will produce oxygen, used to convert coal into a gas which then serves for the production of hydrogen.
Hydrogen and ammonia are vital ingredients in the production of caprolactam.
Air Liquide reveals deal in Chinese nylon production
