Pakistan Oxygen setting up another Air Separation Unit worth Rs2.5 billion

KARACHI: The board of directors of the Pakistan Oxygen Limited has approved an investment of Rs2.5 billion to set up a state-of-the-art Air Separation Unit (ASU) in the northern region of the country, a bourse filing said on Monday.

Once commissioned, it will be the company’s 5th ASU plant in the country.

The investment, which includes the plant and associated storage equipment, will meet the growing demand of oxygen from healthcare and industrial segments, as well as the demand for other industrial gases, including nitrogen and argon.

Presently, this demand is being met through trunking gases from the company’s plant in the central region. The new plant is expected to come on stream by 2023.

“Over the last two years or so, the Pakistan Oxygen Limited has not only operated its ASU plants round-the-clock to meet the growing demand for oxygen for the treatment of Covid-19 patients but has also undertaken various healthcare projects in collaboration with both the private and public sectors to create more than 2,000 new patient beds with oxygen supply systems,” a company statement said.

With the expansion of the proposed ASU plant to be installed in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the company’s customer base will widen to meet the growing customers demand in the healthcare and industrial sectors.

“This shall also significantly boost the oxygen producing capacity in the country’, particularly in the province of KP, which is currently dependent on trunking from elsewhere in the country. The new ASU shall also be able to serve the various ongoing and upcoming CEPC-related projects in KP, providing growth opportunities for Pakistan Oxygen.”

Since its acquisition from the Linde Group in 2018, Pakistan Oxygen’s present board of directors approved significant capital investments, valuing around Rs10 billion in the expansion projects and for improvements of the existing plant(s) machinery, and equipment.

The largest of these investments, valuing Rs6.3 billion is for the under-construction 270 TPD ASU plant at the company’s Port Qasim Karachi site. Currently, Pakistan Oxygen has three ASU plants with a combined capacity of 263 tonnes/day.

In February this year, Pakistan Oxygen announced an investment plan of around Rs417.50 million to set up a new European technology electrode manufacturing facility in Karachi, which will enhance the company’s capacity and capability in the welding segment to meet the growing demand from the industrial sector.

The Pakistan Oxygen Limited is a leading supplier of industrial and medical gases pipeline services and welding solutions.