Air Liquide, already the leading gas supplier to the electronics industry in the Philippines, will invest more than €22 million in the construction and operation of a new air separation unit (ASU) in the Calamba Premiere Industrial Park, south of Luzon.

To be commissioned by year-end 2012, the ASU will produce gaseous nitrogen as well as more than 200 metric tons per day of liquid gases, mainly oxygen and nitrogen.

The Philippines experienced a record GDP growth rate of 7.3% in 2010. In recent years, its formerly agriculture-based economy has been transforming itself into a services and manufacturing-based economy. The electronics sector is one of the most important in the country.

The new ASU will benefit customers that include Samsung Electro-Mechanics Philippines Corp. (Semphil), which recently awarded Air Liquide a new long-term contract for the supply of industrial gases and has a large manufacturing facility in the Luzon area producing passive components for its world market.

• Air Liquide, Paris, France