Reporting on the business and technologies
driving today's global industrial gas industry

For AERIFORM, \"location, location, location\" is on e of the country\'s fastest growing markets is significant. A prime address in the middle of the energy and oil patch, however, is not the only reason behind the South Central gases, welding, and safety product supplier\'s success. Added to location is  a key business strategy that makes remarkable things happen - \"execute, execute, execute.\" This article touches on the Company\'s history, markets, and business strategies.

Nitrogen is used by more customers than any other industrial gas in the US. It is used for its inert characteristics and in liquid form for maintaining low temperatures. Principal applications for nitrogen (N₂) include the purging of pipelines in the chemical and other manufacturing operations, for freezing and chilling in food processing, and for shrink fixing metals at low temperatures in the metals industry. Growing applications for nitrogen are found in the oil and gas extraction processes and services markets and the semiconductor markets where nitrogen is widely used in processes applications. High oil and gas prices have pushed N₂ demand in North American energy markets where nitrogen is widely used in sophisticated processes for extracting oil and gas. This report examines these recent influences on nitrogen demand and supply in the US nitrogen market.

After a number of years of cynicism regarding the effectiveness of Microbulk programs, Scott Chenoweth, President of TWSCO, and industrial gas and welding-supply distributor headquartered in Houston, TX, purchased his first Microbulk truck in 2004. Over the next 18 months he went on to purchase a truck for each of the primary products. TWSCO\'s experience epitomizes a trend that started as a trickle 3-4 years ago, says Scott Boyd, a move by some major gas suppliers to shy away from small bulk deliveries and allow distributors, newly equipped with Microbulk equipment, to add these types of deliveries to their routes.

Praxair reports on the Canadian energy sector, and how it has helped to fuel rapid growth for Praxair Canada, which has been able to build upon its existing infrastructure, anticipate customer requirements and add capacity to meet demand that is projected to grow about 25 percent a year for the foreseeable future.

Welding, the most economical and efficient way to join metals permanently and the only way to join two or more pieces of metal to make them act as one, is vital to our economy. Nearly half of the nation\'s gross national product is related to welding in one way or another. Welding also involves more sciences and variables than most other industrial processes making the market for welding products and services a fast-moving complex target. For industrial gases, welding customers are most typically in the big manufacturing fabrication sectors of the economy, such as the automotive, construction, general manufacturing, ship-building, and aerospace industries. In this article Maura Garvey explores the welding market, applications, and types of welding.

In this article Brian Deveaux defines Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), how they work, advantages and disadvantages of using ESOPs as an exit strategy.

The Most fundamental concept of business is to make money. In the Compressed Gas Business, one of the best ways to accomplish this is by being a premier supplier. But what makes your business \"premier\"? How can your companydifferentiate itself in a highly competitive marketplace?

The Compressed Gas Business involves companies that buy liquid product from a major supplier, put it in a storage vessel, pump it through manifolds into cylinders, and then deliver these cylinders on trucks. Many compressed gas operations are quite similar, with profitability directly linked to costs. So how can you differentiate your costs - and therefore your ability to become the premier supplier - from that of your competitor? TAP Resources reccomends that you bring Lean Thinking to your business.

This company profile explores the history, branches, view of the future, and mission of this Franklin Park, IL based company.

Whether the economy is robust or challenging, the present is always a good time to seek cost-saving process improvements. For mixed welding shielding gases, a gas mode change from one cylinder type to another that requires less handling can prove to be a cost-saving measure. The discussion that follows looks at the technology used to improve gas blends for welding and to improve productivity.

This is the second in our series of articles on The History of Gases. In this series Ebbe Almqvist, author of History of Industrial Gases, provides his keen insights on the origins, applications, uses, and processes of Hydrogen.

In support of the \"Hydrogen Market Update\" (February 2006), CryoGas International invited a group of companies, that provide the technology involved in making and supplying hydrogen, to explain their involvement in this business. The promise of hydrogen becoming a more widely used source of energy is dependent on the applications and technologies developed by companies like these. CryoGas International is very appreciative for the information the following companies have provided. To make a case for a hydrogen future we must understand the hydrogen of today -- and the companies featured in this report contribute to our understanding of what it takes to travel along the Hydrogen Highway. 

The hydrogen business is complicated, big, and fast growing. The production and distribution of hydrogen requires a complex system of crude hydrogen sourcing, involves a variety of processes to refine the crude to merchantable pure hydrogen, and has its own unique liquid and gas distribution supply chain. A wide variety of customers together with the mixture of gas and liquid supply of hydrogen via very different modes makes the business of hydrogen one of the most interesting and challenging in the industrial gas society. In this article, Garvey looks at the history of the hydrogen business, the current market, supply chain, production technology, and important players in the hydrogen market.

In October, CryoGas International brought you coverage of Hurricane Katrina, with front-line reports from many in our industry, on the storm\'s immediate effects. Four months have passed since then and media attention is now focused elsewhere. But the hard work of revocering from this very powerful and destructive storm goes on, continuing to affect those within our industry. We asked Air Products -- a company that has been involved in all levels of the relief effort in Louisiana -- to give us an update on the situation in New Orleans. Here is there story.

The market for argon in the US is growing, but economics and the elements have been creating challenges along its supply chain. The lack of growth in basic oxygen production, from which argon is derived, combined with the set-backs at production facilities caused by high summer temperatures and a few horrific hurricanes, is putting lots of pressure on argon supply and prices. In this article, we examine the factors behind the growth in demand for argon, together with the forces slowing investment in new production capacity and stalling supply.

In the wake of several global natural disasters, the worldwide economy managed to grow at an estimated 3.1 percent in 2005, a bit slower than 2004 which attained overall real growth of 3.7 percent. In this report, Garvey examines the events which led to this slowdown, the state of the US economy, where major industrial gas players stand, and provides an outlook for the coming year, 2006.

This is the first in our series of articles on The History of Natural Gases. Ebbe Almgvist, author of History of Industrial Gases and this series, will be providing his keen insights on the origins, applications and uses of industrial gases and processes.

Different people see different things when they walk into a cylinder fill plant and see a lot of cylinders. Sales reps see filled cylinders with important gas products ready to be sold. Production supervisors are comfortable seeing cylinders filled on the dock and think about all the additional cylinders that need to be filled. And financial controllers see capital assets with significant value. Company owners generally see the big picture that includes the customers being served and hopefully sense whether there are too many, or too few, cylinders given the revenues and operating income cylinders are creating. We are proposing that you consider utilizing a different approach to your cylinder fill production and inventory to reduce your costs, increase your profitability and maintain a competitive level of service to your valued customers.

Packaged gas distribution is an asset intensive business. Typically gas containers are the largest capital investment made by the gas distributor. That is why one of the distributor\'s most profitable opportunities is to maximize the return on cylinder investment through increased cylinder productivity. A productive cylinder drives revenue from both increased gas delivery and accurate tracking of cylinder rental.

A company profile of the 1958 established business. Strong muscle power and ingenuity drive this tube transport manufacturer\'s success and double digit growth continues.

For the global semiconductor market, 2005 has been a plesant surprise. Sales of personal computers, digital televisions, cell phones, and hand-held consumer electronic devices are all runing ahead of original projections.  In this market report Garvey covers the Regional Markets, The US, Market Segments, Industrial Gas Companies Targeting Growth, and How the Players Play in the Semiconductor Markets. She also addresses the Flat Screen Market, and an outlook on the future of these markets.

Fred Siemer, a Chartered Financial Analyst, who has over 25 years experience in the Chemical and Investment Industries, presents \"Wall Street Views.\" The views of Mr. Siemer are his own and are independent of CryoGas International.

Of course the big news for the third quarter was the hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. We usually report on economic performance for the past quarter and outlook, but the disruption caused by the weather make projections very tentative. It appears consumers are still willing to spend, although at a somewhat slower pace.

We estimate the potential worldwide market value in healthcare for industrial gas companies and distributors to be about $6 billion in 2005. This includes our industry\'s expansion into the homecare and specialized services business. We estimate growth will be at least severn percent based on organic growth, geographical expansion, acquisitions, and new technologies.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for business resumption following a disaster. However, the American Society of Safety Engineers\' (ASSE) disaster safety checklist can help businesses before, during, and after a disaster. The ASSE has provided CryoGas International with the following checklist for our readers.

In July, J.R. Campbell had the great pleasure of visiting Norco, Inc. at their facilities in Boise, Idaho. Norco\'s new LOX/LIN/LAR plant, their new large Meridian branch in West Boise, and their integrated gas filling service and central hard goods warehouse operations at company headquarters on Amity Road. Norco\'s President, Ned Pontious, and CEO Jim Kissler, spent several hours with Campbell reviewing their company, its operations, strategies, and goals. What follows comes in large measure from the time Campbell spent with Ned and Jim in Idaho.

In September, approximately 93,000 visitors from all over the world attended the Schweissen & Schneiden fair at Messe Essen in Germany. Taking place only once every four years, Schweissen & Schneiden is the world\'s largest exposition of its kind and provides a global overview of the current status of the technologies associated with all aspects of welding and cutting.

CryoGas International has published a series of articles on Cutting and Fuel gases. For purposes of these reports, we define fuel gases as acetylene, propylene, methyl-acetylene-propadiene (MAPP or MAPD), propane, natural gas, and a number of less significant synthetic hydrocarbon mixtures. Even with significant improvements in equipment and tip efficiencies, cutting/fuel gas costs (including risks of supply) are now a higher percent of total cutting costs than ever before.

A management buyout, known as an MBO, is the purchase of a business operation from its owners by its existing management team usually with the help of financial backers. An MBO presents management with the opportunity to acquire the division, subsidiary or company they are already running and is typically financed by money provided by external sources. Sometimes the current owner is involved with the financing. The profits and cash flow of the operation usually provide the basis for the purchase and for the repayment of outside financing.

In June, I had the privilege of attending an Air Liquide briefing and discussion over breakfast for select members of the business press in New York City with Benoît Potier, Management Board Chairman, and Pierre Dufour, Executive VP of Air Liquide Group, with responsibility for the Americas. This press briefing was part of a two day \"road show\" for financial and investor analysts in New York and Boston.

A critical part of the supply chain for packaged gases is the filling of high pressure and liquid cylinders in cylinder fill plants. For purposes of this article, supply chain begins with the delivery of merchant liquids (and high-pressure gas in tube trailers) by the gas producer/supplier to fill plant storage tanks located adjacent to the filling facilities. It ends with the full cylinders sitting on the fill facility dock awaity delivery to the customer. In this feature, we highlight the issues and problems surrounding the unit operations of filling cylinders, and suggest opportunities for improvement together with some solutions.

GT&S, Inc is currently among the largest privately owned distributors of industrial, medical, and specialty gases, and related welding & specialty gas equipment. GT&S, Inc, doing business as GTS, has a long gas industry history and a very bright future. A reasonable question is \"Who is GTS, and where is it heading in the next 5-10 years?\" 

First it was asbestos. Will welding fumes be next? Inquired the lead to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal about the current Welding Fumes Litigation. CryoGas International sat down with attourney Stephen Harburg, liaison cousel for all the defendants in the Welding Fumes Litigation, to understand the issues behind the headlines.

Early this summer the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a workshop in Parsippany, NJ, with the pharmaceutical industry to discuss current topics and progress on the FDA\'s new initiative: \"A Risk-Based Approach - Pharmaceutical cGMPs for the 21st Century.\" The goal of the FDA\'s new initiative is \"to enhance and modernize the regulation of pharmaceutical manufacturing and product quality - to bring a 21st century focus to this critical FDA responsibility.\"

Fred Seimer, a chartered financial analyst with over 25 years in chemical and investment industries, reviews the most recent results for industrial gas and related technology companies for CyroGas International. The views of Mr. Siemer are his own and are independent of CryoGas International.

From the clean burn of oxy-fuel in iron foundries to the \"cold blast\" of palletized CO₂ in cleaning processes - industrial gases and related technologies and equipment are being used to address many of today\'s most pressing environmental issues.

According to Dennis Wilson, President and Owner of Wilson Welding & Medical Gases, there is one major difference that sets this company apart, \"Instead of simply stocking gases and equipment products, we train our team to examine processes, facilities and equipment. We then create a total customer solution with a documented and detailed return-on-investment. The end result, if it\'s good for the customer, it\'s good for Wilson.\"

In 2004 we reported on \"Helium: Lifting World Demand\" (CGI, July, 2004) where the demand for helium was mixed, with slower growth in MRI markets and continued stagnation in fiber optics, but faster demand growth in welding applications and in electronics as the economy started to regain its footing. On the supply side we reported that the new crude helium enrichment unit came online at the Cliffside Gas Field in the U.S. and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. government agency charged with managing the Federal Helium Program, began its Open Market Sale of helium from the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve.

In this article, CGI examines the current helium market worldwide and in the U.S. where demand has been off due to the impact of the economic downturn over the past few years. Today, demand for U.S. helium looks like it will slowly come back starting in 2005, thanks to the rapidly growing sales in the Pacific Rim, Mexico, and South America. South Korea, Taiwan, and China were key to the growth in the Pacific Rim and Mexico tripled their consumption from 2003 to 2004. Meanwhile, there were significant drops in exports to Japan and the Middle East. The Japanese market has been off over the past five years specifically due to the drop in the fiver optics market and leveling off of demand for MRI.

This article is a company profile on the number two player in the $40 billion global industrial gas industry. The company is recognized as a leader not only in on-site, merchant and packaged gas deliver, but in the global basic materials industry. Praxair is also the last remaining integrated industrial gas company to focus on packaged gases here in the U.S. This profile addresses Praxair\'s strategy, growth model, acquisitions, channel marketing, distributor relationships, technology, safety, and future of metal fabrication.

Almqvist\'s book is a tour de force, which gives insight, not only into the historical development of the gas production industries, but also in new technologies, such as gas welding and cutting, rocket propulsion, biological and medical applications. In addition the author lets us meet the scientists and entrepreneurs whose work lies behind all this.

Herose\'s dedication to manufacturing quality valves for the last 130 years can be best summed up in company President Wilfried W. Zschalich\'s philosophy, \"Our customer\'s business is our business.\"  Herose\'s global industrial gas valve business has grown over 2000 percent in the last eight years and today sells in more than 80 countries in all continents. The company offers a complete range of valves, and safety valves for cryogenic liquified gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and krypton etc.  The following is a profile of the company.

Fred H. Siemer, CFA is President of Siemer Management Co. and has over 25 years of experience in the Chemical and Investment Industries. Formerly with F. Eberstadt & Co. and Smith Barney, he has been associated with Allied Chemical and BASF Corp. Siemer is a graduate of Colgate University with A.B. in chemistry, holds an MBA in Finance and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He established \"Chemical Research for Wall St.\" in 1985. He can be reached via e-mail at FHSChem1@aol.com.

The proliferation of LNG fueling stations and growth of high-pressure applications have nicely supplemented a burgeoning market for medical gases, so much so that manufacturers of bulk tanks for cryogenic gases exhibit optimism for the rest of 2005 and into next year. New high-pressure tanks on the market operate at up to 600 PSI, and if you don\'t want to pay for such a capability but want the flexibility to handle high-pressure service when needed, with an existing lower-pressure tank, manufacturers have your solution too: bulk-tank boosters.

It\'s June and at CryoGas International we are once again puzzling out the market for the industrial, medical, and specialty gas business in the United States, with emphasis on how the very large industrial segment has been impacted by the U.S. economy in 2004.

Nitrogen, the most widely used and abundant of industrial gases, continues to enjoy big markets and big volumes. In our 2003 market update, we detailed the many applications and markets for nitrogen and the development of large-scale production and distribution of liquid nitrogen (LIN) in the U.S. Our last report also discussed the growing ultra high purity (UHP), or five \"9\"s (99.999 percent), nitrogen market that has emerged with high-tech manufacturing. In this report we update you on today\'s nitrogen market (not to be confused with ammonia fertilizer often referred to as \"nitrogen\") and on trends in nitrogen capacities in the U.S. Our analysis includes a look at globalization patterns and industry consolidations that effect big nitrogen markets like chemicals, as well as a view of how nitrogen applications have influenced this market.

This is a company profile written on the establishment, manufacturing capabilities, market segments, market strategies, and customer relations of the 1969 established company, Genstar Technologies.

The Medical Gases Industry was able to preserve a long standing practice at the recent meeting with United States Phamacopeia (USP). On the table for discussion was the USP proposal that medical gas manufacturers be required to purchase USP reference standards exclusively from the USP in contrast to the industry practice of purchasing calibration standards from specialty gas companies or having the capability to produce their own standards. In this article Sheridan writes on the background of this discussion, medical gases outside the paradigm of pharmaceuticals, other developments with USP, and the differences between USP and FDA.

The Chinese Government\'s attempts to slow down the economy in general and curb over investment in the booming steel sector in particular, do not seem to have impacted the growth of the industrial gas business in the country which boasts growth rates of more than 10 percent per year, and the last twelve months have seen a flurry of major investment activity in China by the industrial gas majors.

In this report, we bring you up to date on recent trends in the global oxygen market and in the U.S. market. We discuss the critical shift in oxygen demand that has occurred offshore, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, and present recent oxygen production, volumes and values by mode in the U.S.