By the end of April “ most major gas companies had reported their 2005 financial information and sales (with the exception of Taiyo Nippon Sanso). As reported in Issue 11 of gasworld “ the industrial gases business reached $49bn in 2005.
2005 was a strong year for the industrial gas companies “ with both volumes and prices favourable in most regions and countries. As readers will be aware “ the industrial gases business is driven by the end-user sector and demand for all sorts of products from chemicals, plastics, steel, automotives, food and all the other products in which gases play an increasing role in their production.
So not surprisingly with the improving global economy, despite the high oil price, demand for gases or gas intensity continues to rise strongly “ 10 per cent in 2005.
To show evidence of what was behind the growth in 2005, we can look at the pool of the seven major gas companies and see that a number of factors helped drive demand for gases and revenues in 2005. Figure 1 shows the various drivers for 2005 showing that total revenues grew by 12.5 per cent for the pool of seven (Air Products, Air Liquide, Airgas, Linde, BOC, Praxair and TNSC). Higher natural gas prices which are generally passed through to the end-user contributed 1.5 per cent of this growth. This normally applies to those most active in the hydrogen production and supply scheme side of the business.
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