Manufacturing industries are looking for joining hands with gas manufacturers: Moloy Banerjee, Linde India

Industrial gases (such as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, etc) are specifically manufactured for use in a wide range of industries. Over the past 77 years, Linde India Ltd (formerly known as BOC India Ltd) has established itself as a steady partner in the economic and industrial development of the country. In this interaction with Rakesh Rao, Linde India’s Managing Director, Moloy Banerjee, stresses on the importance of industrial gases for improving efficiency in the manufacturing sector, and new areas of opportunities.
 
How has been the performance of Linde India since its acquisition of BOC?
Linde India is the leading industrial gases company in India. Linde AG acquired The BOC Group in September 2006, forming The Linde Group. Since the acquisition, Linde India has grown strongly, 25% y-o-y in the last 3-4 years, while Linde Group has made investments worth Rs 1,500 crore so far.
 
The Gases Division of Linde India includes tonnage (on-site), merchant & packaged gases (liquefied and cylinder gases) and healthcare (medical gases). Our expertise in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts lies in engineering plants, Air Separation Units (ASU) plants, natural gas plant and hydrogen gas plant.
 
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We own and operate India’s largest air separation plant in Jamshedpur and run more than 21 production facilities and filling stations across the country. Our product portfolio provides for requirement of more than 20,000 gases and mixtures in compressed and liquefied form.
 
Linde India’s customers are leading companies that span the steel making, metals processing, automotive, manufacturing, fabrication, glass, chemicals, petrochemicals, food & beverage, pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries. Our expansive distribution system with over 400 plus tankers, closely monitored by the National Scheduling Centre and Fleet Control Room ensures on-time delivery and our largest network of sales help maintain value for customers.
 
How do you view the present market for industrial gases in India? What is driving the demand for industrial gases in India?
Sectors like pharmaceuticals, automotive, manufacturing, plastics, chemicals, consulting services, infrastructure & construction, healthcare, agricultural products, mining and services will drive demand for gases. Now-a-days industries are adopting effective processes that reduce time, increase productivity and cut costs. They look at process improvements and value for money.
 
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With India turning into a global manufacturing hub, manufacturing industries are looking for joining hands with gas manufacturers. Similarly process industries such as steel, aluminium and glass manufacturing are looking at various methods to reduce their fuel consumption and increase the output. Overall, the industries are looking at specific solutions and are keen to partner with gas suppliers that have moved ahead from commodity offerings to specific offerings.
 
What are the challenges before the industrial gas manufacturers in India?
The utmost challenge faced by industrial gas manufacturers is to maintain and sustain safety at the site of production and ensure timely delivery (within the confines and adherence to safety and regulations) of liquids at cryo temperatures stored at high pressure, across long distances on Indian roads.
 
Secondly, the lack of uninterrupted power creates a major hurdle in our production as electricity forms the basic raw material in the production of gases. The increase in the power and diesel also impacts our input cost and recovery of price escalation proves to be a difficult task.    
 
What are your plans to tap the Indian industrial gases market?
Linde India is focussing on emerging markets and clean energy in the foreseeable future. We are concentrating towards industrial clusters and developing on cluster strategy giving new direction to market opening and reducing the cost of doing business. We are also looking at increasing our footprints in terms of microsites and debunking sites for argon.
 
Process improving applications in manufacturing industries like enhancing the productivity in steel and refinery, welding techniques are core issues being pursued. Keeping Linde’s tradition of innovating for customers, constant efforts are applied to reduce the power usage footprint by having new energy efficient plants thereby contributing to carbon reduction also.