Industrial Gases Market Remains on Target for Improved Year of Investments

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--It's no secret that producers of industrial gases have suffered much less than most other segments of the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) over the past two years. In fact, this segment of the CPI has performed very strongly for most of the last decade and saw very little fallout last year, even at the low point of the economic recession.

For plants originally scheduled to begin construction in 2009, Industrial Info identified only 10 projects in this industry segment that were cancelled or placed indefinitely on-hold. These projects had a combined total investment value (TIV) of only $69 million. So far this year, the number of industrial gases meeting this fate has decreased slightly, although a couple of major projects have taken the TIV to more than $350 million. ForeverGreen Enterprises Incorporated (Clifton, New Jersey) has placed plans for a grassroot waste-to-hydrogen plant with a price tag of nearly $225 million on indefinite hold, accounting for a majority of the delayed investment dollars this year in the segment.

This year, the $700 million-plus in capital and maintenance project spending planned to get under way in this segment of the CPI this year, will focus will largely on maintenance and reliability. The number of major maintenance turnarounds is expected to more than double this year to 50 or more, with a combined TIV exceeding $70 million--a sharp increase over the previous year. Plant owners across the entire industry have increased budgets for maintenance programs in recent years to focus on preventative and predictive maintenance routines, reliability improvements and efficiency gains.

The largest project in this sector to begin construction during the second half of this year will be a new unit addition planned by Air Liquide Industrial U.S. LP (Houston, Texas) for a 120 million-standard-cubic-foot-per-day hydrogen unit in Pasadena, Texas. Air Liquide will also construct a new pipeline to support the company's regional hydrogen units stretching from Pasadena to Port Arthur, Texas. The second-largest project expected to begin construction during the second half of the year is planned by Air Products & Chemicals Incorporated (NYSE:APD), for a a grassroot hydrogen plant in Detroit, Michigan, to serve the regional Petroleum Refining Industry.

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