Linde overcame a challenging trading environment and pointed to the ‘resiliency of its model’ after posting a full-year operating profit of $9.7bn in 2024, up 7% on 2023.
Source: Linde
It rounded off the year strongly with Q4 operating profit of $2.5bn, up 9% annually, boosted by high prices and productivity initiatives across all segments. Operating cashflow for the year totalled $9.4bn although full year sales were flat however, at $33bn.
Sanjiv Lamba, CEO, said it made “significant progress” in its clean energy strategy – sourcing more than 40% of global electricity from low-carbon sources – and signed its largest ever product agreement, supporting the $10bn project backlog which will contribute to earnings “for years to come”.
“As anticipated, global macro conditions have continued to weaken, especially foreign currency translation,” he said.
Full year 2025 capital expenditures are expected to range between $5-5.5bn to support operating and growth requirements, and contractual sale of gas backlog.
Asia-Pacific was the highest performing geographical region with sales of $1.7bn, up 2%, while America sales ($3.6bn) rose 1% and EMEA sales fell 2% to $2bn and Linde Engineering sales. Linde Engineering sales grew more sharply (5%) to $628m.
Manufacturing and Chemicals & Energy (both 22%) led the list of key end markets globally, followed by healthcare (17%), Metals & Mining (13%), Food & Beverage and Electronics (both 9%). Lamba said he did anticipate lower volumes in metals and chemicals this year.
Last year Linde tied up its largest-ever sale-of-gas project with chemical company Dow in Canada and partnered with Heidelberg Materials in Germany to break ground on what is believed to be the world’s first large-scale carbon capture and utilisation facility in the cement industry.
Read more: Linde in 2024: Key projects, decarbonisation goals, and 2025 general outlook
Speaking on a webcast, Lamba said he doesn’t expect anything significant from China this year. “Volumes and activity will remain stable. The one sector that is growing, and will continue to, is electronics. A lot of energy and money has been put into that sector and we do expect that to play out. The rest of Asia-Pacific is largely flat, except from India – and given our strong presence there, we are making the most of it and winning more than our fair share.”
“In the US, our current view remains that the first half of the year will be flat-ish but in the second half, for sure, we are expecting increased momentum. In Europe, we expect to see softening, primarily in western Europe.”
He said it is seeing people take more time with hydrogen and applying rigour to FID. “We are seeing that phase continue,” he said. “People tend to think about the IRA and the new administration, but within it there is 45Q [tax credit] which pre-dates the IRA, and actually goes back to 2008, and about 90% of the projects that we are developing in the US are actually looking at 45Q.”
Linde has secured a record number of new small on-site projects for the supply of nitrogen and oxygen for the fifth year in a row. Having signed 59 new long-term deals in 2024 with customers across a range of end markets including electronics, electric vehicles, glass and metal, the company will build 64 plants at customer sites.
Read more: Linde wins record small on-site projects in 2024
“I get excited about small on-sites, because from so many perspectives they are a perfect way of generating income,” added Lamba. “Currently electrolyser based hydrogen is not based in our definition of on-site wins but at some stage you’ll see that as a developing portfolio element. The execution timeframes are much shorter, typically we can deploy a site whin nine to 15 months … and our returns are about what we would see on average for some of our large projects.”
On the key issue of tariffs, Lamba said historically they did not impact Linde’s firm offers in the procurement cycle. “More importantly we got some benefit out of the devalusation of currencies that more than offset the tariff impact,” he said. “At this point in time we feel pretty good about where our projects stand.”
Matt White, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer for Linde, added the impact is more indirect involving Linde’s customers. “You have to ask with these tariffs ‘is production shifting or will there be a reduction in production?’ In a shifting basis, we feel quite good, we’ll capture where it goes. And if there is a net reduction the question will be from where? So time will tell.”
