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

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

-based industrial gas company. It is a joint venture between ''Inox Leasing and Finance Limited'' and

Air Products & Chemicals Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. is an American international corporation whose principal business is selling gases and chemicals for industrial uses. Air Products' headquarters is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pen ...

. The company is engaged in the manufacturing, trading, and supply of industrial and medical gases ''viz''. Oxygen, Nitrogen, Argon, Hydrogen, Helium, Nitrous Oxide – Acetylene, and specialty gas mixtures.

History

The company was established by the

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

family in the year 1963, as ''Industrial Oxygen Company Private Limited'' in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, 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 — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

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, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

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

Operations

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

, 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 a part of National Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surr ...

Ghaziabad district Ghaziabad () is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and a part of Delhi NCR. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghaziabad district and is the largest city in western Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 1,729,000. Ghaziabad Mun ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, 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 help. It was incorporated as a limited company in 1964. It was later merged with the state ...

, 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 ...

in partnership with

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second la ...

and a 180 TPD Sriperumbudur plant in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. 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 plc is a global multinational chemical company founded in Germany and, since 2018, domiciled in Ireland and headquartered in the United Kingdom. Linde is the world's largest industrial gas company by market share and revenue. It serves ...

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 ...

, 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

* {{Official website, www.inoxairproducts.com/ Chemical companies based in Mumbai Chemical companies established in 1963 1999 mergers and acquisitions Inox Group Industrial gases