SIG pours P1.3 billion for air separation unit

To enhance its capability of supplying the growing requirements of their customers from all over Visayas and Mindanao, Southern Industrial Gases Philippines Inc. (SIG), a member of the Linde Group recently broke grounds for its 1.5 hectare Air Separation Unit (ASU) plant in Balamban, Cebu.

The ASU is designed to separate various components of air to produce liquid nitrogen, liquid oxygen and gaseous oxygen as well as “cryogenic” gases or low-temperature gases which are the major products of SIG, explained Dennis Jordan, managing director of Linde Philippines (CIGI-SIG).

 He said that these products have been generating a growing demand from their clients coming from different industries including healthcare, shipbuilding, steel and fabrication, manufacturing, petrochemicals, electronics, and food and beverage.

 “The ASU is the biggest investment in the history of the Linde Group here in the Philippines. Overall we will be pouring P1.3 billion of investments in the country which indicates our confidence in its growing economy,” said Jordan.

He said that the ASU will make sure that they are able to support the growing demands of their major clientele in the Visayas and Mindanao areas as well as enhance the capacity of their existing production sites and on site plants all over the country.

Jordan stressed that their vision is to shape the future of the gas industry in the country by focusing on their customers and pursuing excellence in their operational safety.

Amid the worsening impacts of the global economic slowdown, the Linde Group pushed through with this major investment because they see further growth opportunities in the area, said Jordan.

”We always believe that economic downturn is the right opportunity to make investments. The ASU is an important investment for us because it will support our existing customers as well as cater to the future growth of the Visayas and Mindanao regions so when the upturn will return, we will be in the best position to supply these major industries,” Jordan pointed out.

The growing need of Tsuneishi, one of the major clients of SIG in the Visayas has triggered the need to put up the one billion peso air separation facility in Balamban, said SIG general manager Tristan P. Dumlao.

With their increased capacity, SIG will strive to achieve double digits of growth through their existing customers as well as in attracting new markets, said Dumlao.

Currently, SIG supplies industrial oxygen, acetylene, argon for wielding, specialty gases, and liquid gases, among to their clients which include big hospitals as well as large scale corporate enterprises based in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

After the ground breaking ceremonies, the ASU plant’s construction will immediately start this month and it is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2010.

SIG was established through a joint venture between the Aboitiz Company and the British Oxygen Company (BOC) in 1993.

In 1999, SIG was 100-percent-owned by BOC, which turned the company over to the Linde Group, a Germany-based gases and engineering company in 2006.

SIG now has 22 gas and gear centers and five major production sites in the Visayas and Mindanao and its sister company in Luzon is the Consolidated Industrial Gases Incorporated (CIGI).

Both companies are considered to be the leading industrial gases companies in the country as they have the largest network of gas production and distribution centers.