The African Continent is vast and, apart from a few specific countries, has little in the way of a developed industry. As a result, Africa has one of the
smallest merchant industrial gas markets of all the regions in the world and yet there is a fast developing market from this small base, which amounted to over $800 million in 2004. As part of its annual coverage of the industrial gases markets, gasworld presents this Special Feature on the recent news, announcements and investments that have taken place in the region.
The Market
According to industry analysts 1, the African region has a gas business valued at $825 million in 2004. The largest market and the most industrially advanced is that in South Africa which accounts for about half the total market. There are a few other countries with notable gas markets “ these include Egypt and Nigeria. The rest fall within the band of $3m to $40m markets in size. However, interestingly, a much larger amount of industrial gases are consumed by customer owned units and Africa houses the largest single consuming site for oxygen in the world, in South Africa, amounting to some 35 000 tpd of gaseous oxygen.
For historic reasons, the continent has two main companies which dominate the supply of industrial gases across the region “ Air Liquide and BOC. Generally their current presence in the Region is a reflection of the development of the French and British Colonies in the early 20th Century. There have been many changes in the structure of the gas supply side in the past 50 years, depending on the political status of the governments in various countries which have lead to several of their businesses being nationalised and then re-privatised. However, both companies remain the dominant force in the continent. Other companies, such as Air Products, Messer and Linde, have shown interest and even developed businesses in the Region over past 35 years. Linde and Messer had a joint venture in South Africa (Fedgas), which was fully acquired by Messer in the late 1980s and subsequently sold to Air Liquide in 2002 (Messer sold its entire businesses in Egypt and South Africa to Air Liquide).
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