October 14, 2008

Praxair wants to enter UAE

Reuters reported that the largest industrial gases supplier in US, Praxair, is looking to expand its integrated business model into the UAE, which along with some other Gulf countries, has seen its economy grow rapidly on the back of windfall oil revenues.

Mr James Sawyer CFO of Praxair declined to say when the foray into the Middle East would occur, but said the company is more interested in supplying a range of industries, rather than setting up one plant that caters to the needs of a single refinery. Mr Sawyer said that "When we operate an integrated business, we can get a very high return on capital. If you just go over and build a single plant for a single customer, you can not get as high a return on capital," Sawyer said.

In the United States and elsewhere, Praxair runs a packaged gas business selling gases in cylinders. It also has a merchant gas business that supplies it via tankers and an on-site business that usually sets up adjacent to a customer's manufacturing facility. It supplies a range of industries from energy to health care, and the gases it produces are used in applications such as metal fabrication, beverage carbonation and petroleum refining.