After pushing their bodies to the brink of human endurance, competitors at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are probably going to be a little thirsty. And when they reach for a clean, refreshing glass of water, they can thank industrial gas provider Danbury-based Praxair.
Beijing Praxair, which is an affiliate of Praxair Inc.’s China division, has landed an exclusive contract to supply oxygen to Beijing No. 3 Water Works, which will provide fresh drinking water to Beijing for the Olympic Games.
Oxygen plays a vital role in the water treatment process, and Praxair’s ability to provide that resource has made the treatment of drinking water one of Praxair China’s key market sectors.
“We are proud of winning this new contract and customer,” said David Chow, president of Praxair China in a press release. “It provides us with another significant opportunity to contribute to the Beijing Olympic Games as well as to the overall drinking water quality in Beijing.”
The company’s water treatment efforts have earned it a spot on Fool.com’s list of the top stocks of the next 50 years, alongside giants like ExxonMobil and Coca Cola.
Fast Growing
It’s also helped the Fortune 300 company grow its waste water treatment business, which recently landed additional contracts to supply oxygen to three waste water treatment plants in Beijing.
With only 8 percent of the company’s global sales, Asia is Praxair’s smallest market. But it’s also the fastest growing, said Praxair spokesperson Susan Szita Gore.
The company’s sales in China are growing at about 20 percent per year, while total sales worldwide grow about 8 to 12 percent per year, Gore said.
And per capita consumption of industrial gases in China is still only about 2 percent of what it is in the United States, Gore added, so there is much room for growth.
“The rate of industrial production growth in countries like China or India is much higher than in the U.S. or Europe,” Gore said.
North America is still Praxair’s biggest market, with 55 percent of total sales, but the growth of the markets in Asia and Brazil will mitigate any slowdown the company will experience because of a shaky U.S. economy, Gore said.
Praxair, which posted sales in 2007 of $9.4 billion, first entered the Chinese market in 1992. Now, the company has more than 20 locations in China, and Gore said it is one of the leading gas suppliers in the region.
The company has operations in more than 30 countries worldwide and serves the aerospace, electronics, health care and energy markets, among others. It produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and specialty gases and high-performance surface coatings.
