As part of a strategic alliance between the French company Air Liquide and Altos Hornos de Mexico, operations on the ASU6 industrial gas generating plant have begun. The plant is designed to supply the increased demand generated by units within the AHMSA Phoenix Project.
Developed with an investment of US$100 million, the new gas separation plant is located within the AHMSA Steel 2 and is the largest in Latin America, with a capacity of 1,700 tons per day of oxygen, nitrogen and argon.
Based on the needs expressed by the new facilities and capacity expansion involving Phoenix Project, a strategic alliance was established in 2011 between the two companies and construction began on the generating unit, the sixth in operation within AHMSA steelmakers.
The construction of the ASU6 took 24 months and generated 700 direct and indirect jobs. Their gas will supply, among other lines of production to electric furnace steelmaking, the oxygen steelmaking systems, heavy section mills and hot rolling and coking plants and pellet.