Matheson K-Air to build air separation plants

Matheson K-Air India (MKI), a 51:49 joint venture between Matheson Tri-Gas Inc USA and Pune-based K-Air India Pvt Ltd, will invest $100 million over three years to build a series of three air separation plants in India.

The first of these will be a 200-tonne per day plant located at Chakan near Pune that will produce liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen and liquid argon. Built with an investment of $25 million, the unit will become operational by December 2012, Mr Kiran Karnavat, Managing Director, MKI, said. The second plant will also be located in Maharashtra while the third is likely to be set up in North India, he said, adding that the locations were still being finalised. To tap what is estimated to be an industrial gas market of $900 million, MKI will set up its own distributor network and has plans for setting up a mix of 20 re-filling and stock points across the country.

The company is now catering to the auto and auto ancillary segments and will look at healthcare as its next focus area. It has set a target to growing to $60-70 million in annual revenues by 2015 from the present turnover of $10-11 million, Mr Karvanat said.