Reporting on the business and technologies
driving today's global industrial gas industry

In the Spring of 2004, CryoGas International introduced its first in a series of reports on energy issues. We began our series by outlining the macro-economic cost factors for energy in the industrial gas business. In our second report, we zeroed in on the factors behind oil price escalations and their effects on the U.S. economic recovery and on our industry. In this, our third report on energy issues, we examine the natural gas market and its impact on the industrial gas business.

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There is no question about it: Merger and acquisition transactional activity picked up in 2004. Leaders LLC, which specializes in the discreet purchase and sale of privately owned businesses in the Worldwide Industrial Gas Industry, closed on almost four times as many purchase and sale transactions in 2004 as it did in either 2003 or 2002. Businesses sold in the transactions in which Leaders LLC participated ranged in size from $1 million to $84 million in revenue, and the transaction values ranged from $1 million to $155 million. Total transaction value for Leaders LLC about the purchase and sale of privately owned businesses in 2004 are intended to assist business owners make plans for 2005 and beyond.

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Symbiotic aptly describes the Welco Gases-CGI Industries/Praxair Distribution, Inc. (PDI) move in 2000 to ring to in the new millennium with a merger. The merger was the perfect solution empowering the new organization to become both globally and locally oriented at the same time. Clearly, the relationship gives Welco and CGI the extended global capabilities of a major, and Praxair the unique position as the only major gas company with on-the-ground capabilities in the mid-Atlantic market.

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On December 1st, 2004, the medical gas industry, represented by the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) and the Gases and Welding Distributor Association (GAWDA), met with David J. Horowitz the Director of the Office of Compliance, at the Food and Drug Administration  (FDA) and members of his staff , to discuss progress on the FDA draft of the formal guidance entitled, Current Good Manufacturing Practice for Medical Gases (cGMP). "The FDA found that the comments submitted by the CGA and GAWDA to be extremely helpful in moving the Guidance document forward in a positive manner. While we believe the FDA has accepted many of the suggestions by the industry into the working draft of the guidance document, there are still several key issues that remain to be resolved," reported Bob Yeoman, Managing Director of B&R Compliance and medical gases consultant to GAWDA.

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