The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has invited public comments on an application from Linde and Praxair to sell a hydrogen and carbon monoxide (syngas) plant at Clear Lake, Texas, to Celanese.

The FTC requires the Linde plant to be sold as part of its conditions for approving the merger with Praxair. The agency said it will decide whether to approve the application after a 30-day public comment period, which will expire on Dec. 21.

The German gases group must complete all divestments required by the FTC by Jan. 29, 2019 – until then the two companies will continue to operate separately.

Linde’s assets being sold include, in addition to the Clear Lake plant and a syngas facility at LaPorte, Texas, to LyondellBasell, substantially all of its US bulk industrial gases business to Messer Group and CVC Capital Partners. Beyond that, five plants outside the Gulf Coast, along with a pipeline on the Gulf Coast, are also to be sold. The latter will go to Matheson Tri-Gas, part of Japan’s Taiyo Nippon Sanso, which has also taken all of Praxair’s European industrial gas operations.

In separate news, Linde has signed an agreement with Russian steel group NLMK for the long-term supply of oxygen, nitrogen and argon to its works in Lipetsk.

Under the terms of the deal, Linde will spend around €100 million to build, own and operate an air separation unit at the Lipetsk site that will produce about 72,000 Nm3/h of gaseous oxygen. The facility is expected to go on stream in the fourth quarter of 2021.