Praxair News

The following are mergers under review by the European Commission that could be of interest to the global maritime and energy communities. -- Austrian company Borealis, Canada's Nova Chemicals and French oil and gas major Total to set up a joint venture (notified Feb. -- British turnaround specialist Melrose Industries to acquire British engineering company GKN (notified Feb. -- German steel company ELG Haniel and and Spanish peer Iberinox 88 SA to set up a joint venture (notified Feb.

Distributor of atmospheric gases and welding supplies, Memphis-based nexAir LLC, announced its merger with 23 Praxair Distribution Southeast, LLC (PDSE) branches located in Florida and southeast Georgia and the acquisition of two Praxair Distribution, Inc. (PDI) branches in eastern Georgia. The transaction closed on December 31, 2015, and nexAir assumed operations of the 25 branches as of January 4, 2016. PDSE was formed in 1997 as the result of a joint venture between PDI and the George W. Fowler Company, a long time industrial gas distributor in Florida owned by the William B. Porter family. The family will take an ownership interest in nexAir with the closing of this transaction. PDSE will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of nexAir.

Metso has opened a new valve supply and service center in Vadodara, India. The new supply center supports the company’s strategy to grow the valve business globally and strengthens Metso’s service capabilities in India for major petrochemical, energy, and oil and gas companies, such as Reliance Industries Ltd., Indian Oil Corporation, Technip, Praxair India Pvt. Ltd and PRAJ Industries Ltd. “The market in India is growing. Last year, we doubled our order intake for valves and related services, and expect the good development to continue. Establishing a new supply center in India is a step going forward in widening  manufacturing and service capabilities in India,’’  said  Alok Kishore, Country Manager India, Metso Automation.

The company also announced that they expect to report a third quarter 2008 net loss of approximately 45 cents to 50 cents per diluted share. The Company continued to experience significant adverse impacts on gross profits during the quarter on certain projects due to productivity and logistical issues. Lower than expected revenues also contributed to the third quarter earnings shortfall, as did lower than expected vessel utilization in . John A. Clerico has been a member of Global's Board since February 2006 and is the Chairman of Chartmark Investments, Inc., a company he founded in 2001. Mr. Clerico previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Praxair, Inc. From 1999-2000, Mr.

Servomex has been granted a multi-year contract to provide its Xentra 4100 Gas Purity Analyzer to Praxair of Tonawanda, N.Y. The Xentra analyzer, which measures trace levels of carbon dioxide, comes equipped with a patented gas filter correlation infrared bench. The primary application of the product will be the monitoring of very low levels of carbon dioxide dissolved in liquid oxygen inside the main condensers of cryogenic air separation plants. If the carbon becomes too concentrated it will solidify.

Exmar has applied to MBZ, the Zeebrugge Port Authority, for a domain concession for the construction of a discharging and ship-to-ship transfer installation for LNG and high pressure natural gas in the Port of Zeebrugge (Belgium). Zeebrugge. Belgian and European gas markets, EXMAR wishes to build a new discharging and ship-to-ship transfer infrastructure in the Port of Zeebrugge. This infrastructure will be fully compatible with that already existing and will further strengthen the position Belgium commands as a supply and transit country for natural gas in Europe. For the construction and development of the new infrastructure, EXMAR is working closely together with such companies as Ondernemingen Jan De Nul (dredging), Praxair, Jacobs Engineering, ERM and ECOLAS.