This acquisition includes ownership of the Theodore, Alabama manufacturing site, all trailer-related intellectual property, manufacturing capabilities, equipment and repair backlog.
The facility has approximately 300,000 square feet under roof adjacent to the Port of Mobile, and the associated employees will join the Chart team.
In a statement, Chart said this acquisition will produce strong synergies by combining Chart’s deep knowledge of cryogenics and liquid hydrogen storage and handling with the Theodore operation’s expertise and experience in the packaging and assembly of liquid hydrogen trailers.
The addition of the trailer business to Chart’s hydrogen equipment and solution offering expands the company mobile equipment to larger sized transports and brings another location already certified by significant hydrogen customers, the statement continued.
Chart said expected hydrogen-related revenue from this facility in 2021 is $15 to $20m with upside potential to $30m in 2021.
“Owning this strategically located site near the Port of Mobile will grow our manufacturing capacity for Chart’s LNG products including tender cars for locomotive fuelling and onboard storage tanks for marine fuelling applications and expand our repair, service and leasing footprint (plenty of products to roll into this site (pun intended!)),” said Jill Evanko, Chart’s CEO & President.
“In particular, we will be able to provide expanded options for our North, Latin and Central American customers, including shorter lead-times of our ISO containers for LNG built in our Changzhou, China facility and stored onsite in Alabama.”
Chart’s launchpad into clean energies growth
Analysis by Rob Cockerill, Global Managing Editor
On first glance, this might look like something of a ‘slam dunk’ story in Chart’s continuing journey in hydrogen technologies. The company began the year by becoming a member of the Hydrogen Council, the now 92 member-strong CEO-led organisation that aims to position hydrogen among the key solutions of the energy transition. It is a member of the new European Clean Hydrogen Alliance via its Chart Ferox business, and just last month joined the Hydrogen Europe association.
“We’re committed to advancing the future of clean energy and working toward a zero-emission society through collaborating with our fellow members,” Chart had said in a statement.
In all of these organisations, Chart Industries is in the most esteemed company, with fellow members spanning key stakeholders across energy, transport and industrial sectors. And in the last 24 hours it’s been revealed that Chart is further growing and enhancing the company it keeps in hydrogen; as part of a new strategic partnership, it has just invested €30m in French hydrogen production company McPhy.
All signs point to hydrogen for Chart Industries, like so many others. Or do they? Hydrogen is most definitely the overt story here, and Chart says expected hydrogen-related revenue from this facility in 2021 is $15-20m. Upside potential looks like around $30m in 2021.
But the devil is in the detail of this particular announcement, and the closer inspection of that detail demonstrates that this deal is as much about another of the clean fuels of today and tomorrow – LNG – as it is hydrogen. This is about Chart further reinforcing its already strong capabilities in LNG and cryogenic equipment – another of the key narratives emerging from the company this year…
Read the full column from Cockerill here.