MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products has announced that it has acquired Air Liquide’s industrial gases business in the UAE, including liquid bulk, packaged gases and specialty gases; and Air Liquide’s majority share in MECD, which owns and operates a liquid CO2 production facility in Bahrain, as per the company's press release.
Financial terms are not being disclosed for the agreement.
“The acquisition builds on many years of good experience working in and serving customers in the Middle East and supports our growth strategy for the region,” commented Hamid Sabzikari, vice president and general manager, Air Products Industrial Gases Middle East, Egypt and Turkey.
“It is yet another example of how Air Products is building and strengthening its industrial gas business in the Middle East. In acquiring these businesses, we have further expanded our footprint and regional presence in the UAE and Bahrain, strengthened our product sourcing and reliability, and welcomed talented and dedicated people into our Middle East organization who are passionate about serving local customers.”
As MRC reported earlier, in March, 2022, Italian oil and gas company Eni and Air Liquide entered into a collaboration agreement aimed at assessing decarbonization solutions in the Mediterranean region of Europe, focusing on hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The two companies join forces to enable CO2 capture, aggregation, transport and permanent storage.
We remind that Eni is evaluating conversion of its Livorno refinery in northwest Italy into a biorefinery, as part of the Italian company's wider strategy to make its activities more environmentally sustainable. Eni has already converted two of its Italian refineries and is looking to almost double its biorefining capacity to around 2 million mt/year by 2024, and expand this to at least five times by 2050, as part of its pledge to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC