Specialty gas consumption has grown significantly in recent times and continues to build momentum in many countries, led by the strong and established North American market, where the largest demand is seen, and buoyed by a fast-growing specialty gases business in the Asia-Pacific region.
Previous forecasts have suggested the global specialty gas market will reach a value of $23 billion by 2018, based upon an average annual growth rate of 6.1 percent for the period 2013-2018. What effect — if any — the plummeting price of oil in 2014/15 will have on this projection is not yet known, though many of the key end-user sectors for specialty gases (electronics, healthcare, for example) are not likely to be affected.
Moderate specialty gas growth in the US is expected to continue, driven by demand for smart devices that require an increasing number of ever more complex and smaller semiconductors. For more detail on this topic see, “Shrinking Devices, Growing Demand: Meeting the Electronics Challenge,” on page 30 of this issue.
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