Air Liquide, Praxair Invest In Mideast

Industrial gas producer Air Liquide is investing about $75 million in Middle Eastern oxygen plants. In Egypt it will build a 110-metric-ton-per-day oxygen plant for the steel manufacturer EZZ. In Qatar Air Liquide will add a new oxygen plant to two facilities that already supply Qatar Steel, bringing capacity to 650 metric tons per day. And in Syria the firm has opened a 200-metric-ton oxygen plant dedicated to the steel producer Medsteel. Praxair, meanwhile, will acquire 49% ownership interests from Kuwait’s Al Khaled family in industrial gas businesses in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The businesses had sales last year of about 
$80 million.