While packaged gases have a small share of the overall gas market by volume, they have a relatively large share of the market by value, representing 35 percent of the total.
For the independent gas distributor group in the US, packaged gases, which include high-pressure and liquid cylinders, represented 90 percent of total revenues, including rentals, in 2014. This supply mode is the heart and soul of the distributor business. Packaged gases, which include oxygen, nitrogen, argon, helium, acetylene and other cutting gases, medical and medical mixtures, core/specialty, and electronic specialty gases, are sold in to a wide range of markets and tend to be high value products. They are delivered in high-pressure cylinders, in single volumes, or in banks or bundles, and in larger liquid cylinders (160 – 300 liters).
Improved technology, automation, and the ongoing trend of buy-outs and merg- ers, has led to a dramatic rise in automated and sophisticated cylinder filling and distribution practices, which has been good for the packaged gases business. We have witnessed a steady increase in the volume of cylinders processed in fill plants around the country. Centralized fill plants with computerized, palletized fill systems are now the hallmark of the packaged gas business.
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