The industrial gas specialist Messer is continuing to strengthen its position in Europe and will invest some 20 million euros in an air separation plant at Lonza AG in Visp/Lalden in the Swiss canton of Wallis. Lonza is the world's leading producer of chemical and biotechnological ingredients and products for the life sciences industry. Messer will produce oxygen, nitrogen and argon for Lonza and the Swiss and Italian markets.

One striking feature of the Lonza project is that Messer has adopted the new strategy for energy efficiency and environmental protection. The new air separation plant is considerably more energy efficient in comparison to existing production plants at Lonza. Meanwhile, Messer is using an innovative way in supplying: switching as many transports as possible from road to rail means that each day ten fewer tankers take to the road in Switzerland.