Industrial gases continue to gain prominence in East Europe markets, where the region shows strong revenue increases and still plenty of room for maneuver in the future.
The ever-expanding Eastern Europe gases market continues to demonstrate its growth and potential as this hub of development boasted a gases business valued at over $2bn in 2006.
The majority of the gas majors are currently clamouring to invest in projects in the region and exploit its array of opportunities, as reflected by overall growth in the market of 18% last year. Central Eastern Europe (CEE) countries are still the predominant growth drivers in the region, led by Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Poland
While it is expected that the Polish gas market will fall short of capacity in 2008 and increasingly rely on imports, the country has reported a 16% increase in gas revenues and was recently buoyed by the introduction of a new liquefier by Air Products. The company announced in November a new liquefier to generate an additional 400 tpd of industrial gases to meet the fast growing demand in Polish manufacturing sectors. Scheduled to be on-stream in 2009 and subject to authority approval, the new unit will be located at the company’s Kedzierzyn facility in the south of Poland and will take total capacity for oxygen and nitrogen products to 800 tpd.
Graham Rhodes, Air Products’ Vice President of Bulk Gases, commented, “We are delighted to be making our first major new investment in Poland so soon after the acquisition of the BOC industrial gas business from The Linde Group. This signifies the confidence we have in the mark and our highly motivated commercial team.”
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