The industrial gas giant today (March 18) said its staged investment will help produce more than 1.5bn Nm3 per year of nitrogen and other high purity gases to successfully carry out its newly inked long-term contracts with the undisclosed manufacturers.
In a time where there is high demand for semiconductors, the move will strengthen Air Liquide’s position in the Japanese market and supporting its growth momentum in the sector.
Further to this, the effort will also align with the group’s sustainability objectives, with the plans set to help Air Liquide avoid the emission of an estimated 35,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, compared to previous units.
François Abrial, Member of the Air Liquide Group’s Executive Committee supervising Asia Pacific, said, “We are pleased to strengthen our collaboration with these long-term partners, in line with our strategy to invest for the semiconductor industry and to reinforce our presence in major industrial basins.”
“These contracts illustrate Air Liquide’s capacity to provide our customers with reliable and power-efficient ultra-high purity industrial gas production solutions. They are also aligned with our sustainability objectives, which include helping our customers lower their carbon footprint.”
According to gasworld Business Intelligence, the industrial market in Russia has been one of the fastest growing gas markets in Europe since 2000. The average annual growth was about 11% per year in local currency. The largest market falls in values USD occurred in 2009 (-20%), as well as in 2015-2016 (-26% and -11%, respectively).
According to our estimates, the size of the market in Russia was about 0.95 billion in 2021, the expected growth of the market was about 6-7% per year for five years.
Air Liquide and Linde, each occupying a quarter of the Russian market, were leaders until Linde and Praxair, merged took about 40%. Air Products hold about 5% in 2021. The remaining 30% belonged to other, local and international companies.