INOX Air Products, also known as INOX AP, is the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

-based

industrial gas Industrial gases are the gaseous materials that are Manufacturing, manufactured for use in Industrial sector, industry. The principal gases provided are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium and acetylene, although many other ...

company. It is a joint venture between ''INOX Leasing and Finance Limited'' and

Air Products & Chemicals Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is a U.S.-based international corporation whose principal business is selling gases and chemicals for industrial use. Air Products is headquartered in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of east ...

. The company is engaged in the manufacturing, trading, and supply of industrial and medical gases including

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

argon Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or factitious air, among others, is a chemical compound, an Nitrogen oxide, oxide of nitrogen with the Chemical formula, formula . At room te ...

acetylene Acetylene (Chemical nomenclature, systematic name: ethyne) is a chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is u ...

, and specialty gas mixtures.

History

The company was established by the Jain family in the year 1963, as ''Industrial Oxygen Company Private Limited'' in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

, India. In 1999, Air Products & Chemicals Inc., acquired a 50 percent equity stake in the company, and a new entity was incorporated; INOX Air Products. The company is headquartered in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

and it operates 44 plants across the country for supplying medical and industrial gases. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the company became one of the largest producers of medical oxygen by supplying it to hospitals across India.

Operations

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, INOX AP has the largest storage capacity of 1,000 tonnes and the pan-India distribution infrastructure. The company has been supplying medical Oxygen to hospitals in the state using its fleet of 54 specialized cryogenic tankers with a total trunking capacity of 380,000 liters of Oxygen. It also operates an Ultra-High Purity Cryogenic Oxygen Plant in

Modinagar Modinagar is a town and a municipal board in Ghaziabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is 24 km from Ghaziabad city, 48 km from New Delhi. It is a part of National Capital Region. The city was founded in 1933 by ...

Ghaziabad district Ghaziabad district () is a largely suburban district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. It is also a core part of the National Capital Region. The city of Ghaziabad is the administrative headquarters of the district. This district is ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, a 1,250-tonnes per day (TPD) Air Separation Unit at

Bokaro Steel Plant Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) is located in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand. It is the fourth integrated public sector steel plant in India built with Soviet technology. It is the second largest steel plant in India after Bhilai Steel Plant and 3 ...

, a three air separation unit of combined 1700 TPD capacity at

Hazira Hazira is a suburb and a transshipment port in the Surat City in the Gujarat state of India. It is the west most end of Surat. Hazira is one of the major ports of India and the most important element of Surat Metropolitan Region. The town is k ...

in partnership with

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourg-based multinational steel manufacturing corporation, headquartered in Luxembourg City. It is ranked second on the list of steel producers behind Baowu, and had an annual crude steel production of 58 millio ...

and a 180 TPD Sriperumbudur plant in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. As of 2021, the company has a combined capacity to manufacture more than 3,300 tonnes per day (TPD) of liquid gases. The future expansions will push total liquid gases production to 4,800 TPD by 2024.

Mergers and acquisitions

Belloxy was a joint venture between

Linde plc Linde is a global multinational chemical company and the world's largest industrial gas supplier by market share and revenue. Founded by German scientist and engineer Carl von Linde in 1879 in Wiesbaden, Germany, the company is now headquarter ...

and INOX Air Products. Later as per the directives given by

Competition Commission of India The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is the chief national competition regulator in India. It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002 to promote competition a ...

, Linde had to divest its shareholding in the JV to address anti-competitive issues which arose due to its proposed merger with

Praxair Praxair, Inc. was an American worldwide industrial gases company. Founded in 1907, Praxair was the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and the third-largest worldwide by revenue. In 2018 it merged with Linde AG to form ...

. In 2020, Linde's board approve the sale of Belloxy and the latter became a 100% subsidiary of INOX AP.

Controversies

In the aftermath of the 2017 Gorakhpur hospital deaths, the company started selling medical oxygen directly to Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital but at a 17.5% higher than the previous price, which raised doubts on the new deal. In 2022, an Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling of

state ruled against the company and denied input tax credit under the Goods and Services Tax on leasehold rights acquired for the construction of air separation unit in the state.

References

External links