Japan’s Iwatani International Corporation has always had its customers at heart, a strategy that has seen the company stand the test of time and grow to become a major regional and international gas player. Helen Carmichael talks to the company’s Senior Executive Director, Takashi Miyagawa.
Iwatani International Corporation (Iwatani) began in 1930 when Naoji Iwatani launched his oxygen and welding supplies business. “In pre-war times, our company found considerable success as the largest industrial gas dealer or distributor in the Kansai area,” Miyagawa explains. “The liquid petroleum gas (LPG) business starting in 1953, however, triggered our company to make a great leap forward after the war.”
The company expanded its sales network based on the LPG supply for the consumer market, which resulted in a fuel revolution for Japanese consumers. This was extremely valuable to homemakers because the fuel supply freed up a considerable amount of time and effort, boosting the Iwatani’s popularity. “At the same time we tried to branch out into other businesses than industrial gas in order to expand our scale of operation,” Miyagawa says.
The 1960’s saw the company begin importing LPG from Canada to meet demand, and the company reorganised to take on new challenges in the areas of consumer products, housing and agricultural modernisation, gas development, anti-pollution measures, and labour-saving devices. Further restructuring followed, and in the late 1970’s Iwatani launched two major projects: construction of a large-scale liquid hydrogen plant and establishment of Cold Air Products Co. Ltd, a company which effectively uses the heat generated when converting LNG into gas. September 1978 saw the completion of Japan’s largest liquid hydrogen production plant in Osaka, with 730 litres per hour or 36 tonnes per month capacity and storage of 200,000 litres.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
