India’s largest manufacturer of industrial and medical gases, INOX Air Products (INOX AP), will build its sixth air separation unit (ASU) at the Hazira facility owned and operated by ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India).

A joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel, AM/NS India stated that the new ASU will produce 1000 tonnes per day of gaseous oxygen and 1000 TPD of gaseous nitrogen, in addition to other liquid medical and industrial gases.

Combined, the five ASUs currently in operate produce 9000 TPD of industrial gases, set to increase to 11,100 TPD following commissioning of the sixth ASU.

Buoyed by the prospect of further scaling up capacity at the site, Siddharth Jain, Director at INOX AP, said, “We are committed to ensure that our capex plan fructifies in a productive manner and stays on course to deliver upon its objective of augmenting the growth of India’s infrastructure and manufacturing sectors and push our country closer to its vision of a $5 trillion economy within the next few fiscals.”

More than half of the world’s steel is produced in the basic oxygen process (BOP), which uses pure oxygen to convert a charge of liquid blast-furnace iron and scrap into steel.