New contract with Bayer in Caojing (near Shanghai in China)

Over the past few years, the municipality of Shanghai in China has developed an industrial park dedicated to Chemicals industry, approximately 50 kilometres to the south of Shanghai, in Caojing. This complex – one of the biggest in Asia – belongs to one of the most dynamic regions in China in terms of economic growth, with a current growth rate of well exceeding 10% per annum. In effect this industrial park, surrounded by vast areas of land, has space, excellent infrastructure and extensive communication resources.

SCIPIG (Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park Industrial Gases Company, Ltd), a joint venture held 50% by Air Liquide and 50% by Praxair, established on the site since 2001, has just signed a new 15-year "air gas" contract with Bayer Polyurethane (Shanghai) Co Ltd. Within the framework of this contract, SCIPIG will supply all the oxygen and nitrogen requirements of Bayer's new global production facility in Caojing, the biggest in China. With this new contract, SCIPIG is reinforcing its leadership and speeding up its development within this industrial park.

From the second quarter of 2008, SCIPIG will therefore supply nitrogen to Bayer plants manufacturing polymers, the base molecules for plastics. In effect, gases are essential for manufacturing polycarbonate, a light and highly shock-resistant material used, for example, for car headlights, and polyurethanes with their many applications in foam form, such as padding, protection and insulation. SCIPIG will also supply oxygen to Bayer's future chlorine recycling plant in Caojing.

Jean-Pierre Duprieu, Member of the Air Liquide Executive Committee, in charge of Asia-Pacific, stated, "This contract is a new stage in SCIPIG's position and development in this fast-expanding region of Shanghai. It also marks the reinforcement of our partnership with Bayer and illustrates the Group's capacity to support its customers anywhere in the world, by making its technologies and its teams' expertise available to them."

Established in China in 1916 and with an increased presence in the last 15 years, Air Liquide employs about 1,500 people in this country. With net sales in 2005 of more than 200 million euros, the Air Liquide operations are located in the industrial areas of Beijing/Tianjin/Shandong in the north, Shanghai/Jiangsu/Zhejiang in the east, and Guangdong in the south. Air Liquide will invest approximately 500 million euros in China between 2004-2008, to meet strong market demand and to seize growth opportunities.

SCIPIG (Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park Industrial Gases Company, LTD) has been a Caojing chemical park industrial partner since its creation in 2001. With a workforce of around fifty employees, SCIPIG now produces and supplies enterprises investing in the park with a full range of industrial gases (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and steam).