Praxair
Please fill in the blank (This is a very important part of the interview – to know why you are interested):
List 2-3 reason why you are interested in this industry?
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List 2-3 reasons why you are interested in Praxair Company?
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List 2-3 reasons why you are interested in this position?
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1. Company general info
At Praxair, doing business is always a gas. The company produces and sells atmospheric gases (oxygen,
nitrogen, argon, and others) as well as process and specialty gases (CO2, helium, and hydrogen) for the
chemicals, food and beverage, semiconductor, and health care industries. Depending on a client
company's gas needs, Praxair can build an on-site gas plant or provide gases by the cylinder.
With 27,000 employees and operations in 40 countries, Praxair is focused on helping our customers
become more profitable, efficient and environmentally friendly.
With annual sales of $7.7 billion, Praxair, Inc. is a global, Fortune 300 company that supplies
atmospheric, process and specialty gases, high-performance coatings, and related services and
technologies.
Praxair's primary products are:
- atmospheric gases -- oxygen, nitrogen, argon and rare gases (produced when air is purified,
compressed, cooled, distilled and condensed), and
- process & specialty gases -- carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, semiconductor process gases, and
acetylene (produced as by-products of chemical production or recovered from natural gas).
Over the near century of its existence, Praxair has remained a
Praxair Surface Technologies is a subsidiary that applies metallic and ceramic coatings and powders to
metal surfaces in order to resist wear, high temperatures and corrosion.
Praxair adopted its name in 1992, from the Greek word "praxis", or practical application, and "air", our
primary raw material. The company was originally founded in 1907 when it was the first company in
North America to commercialize cryogenically separated oxygen.
The company introduced the first distribution system for liquid gas in 1917, and developed on-site gas
supply by the end of WWII. In the 1960s, Praxair introduced non-cryogenic means of air separation, and
since then has continued to introduce innovative applications technologies for various industries. The
company holds almost 3,000 patents.
Praxair serves a wide range of industries: food and beverages, healthcare, semiconductors, chemicals,
refining, primary metals and metal fabrication, as well as other areas of general industry.
Financials and facts
Company Type
Fiscal Year-End
2005 Sales (mil.)
1-Year Sales Growth
2005 Net Income (mil.)
1-Year Net Income Growth
2005 Employees
1-Year Employee Growth
Key People
Chairman and CEO
Public (NYSE: PX)
December
$7,656.0
16.1%
$726.0
4.2%
27,306
1.1%
Dennis H. Reilley
President and COO
SVP and CFO
Stephen F. Angel
James S. (Jim) Sawyer
2. Products
Reliable supply, quality products and expert advice.
Gas and gas mixtures, delivery and purity options tailored to your needs.
Services for industrial gases:
 Remote monitoring of plants, process control, inventory and orders
 24 x 7 customer service center
 Cryogenic equipment, repair and refurbishing
Other services:
 Pipeline cleaning and mobile nitrogen pumping for refineries and chemical plants
 Compressed nitrogen and carbon dioxide supply services for enhanced recovery of oil
and natural gas
 Surface enhancing materials and services for the aviation industry
 Superconducting magnet services to the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) markets
Systems that include cryogenic and non-crogenic cylinder storage, bulk and microbulk delivery
systems, pipeline networks, air separation plants, purification systems and more
3. Top Competitors
Air Products: Business at Air Products and Chemicals is a gas gas gas. The company provides gases
such as argon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen to manufacturers, health care facilities, and other
industries. Not all is light and airy, however. It also produces chemicals, including catalysts, surfactants,
and intermediates used to make polyurethane and emulsions derived from vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).
Air Products also makes gas containers and equipment that separates air, purifies hydrogen, and liquefies
gas. The company distributes industrial gases by building on-site plants (a strategy nearly as old as the
company itself) or by truck for companies with less extensive needs.
L'Air Liquide: Forget the outer planets, the earth has its own gaseous giant in the form of L'Air Liquide
(Air Liquide). The world's second-largest industrial gas supplier (after Linde), Air Liquide has more than
130 subsidiaries in 70 countries, with a clear strength in Europe. It specializes in industrial gases (oxygen,
nitrogen, carbon dioxide, acetylene, and helium) used in welding, heat treatment, plastic production, and
other processes; the company also sells medical gases (oxygen, nitrogen, nitrous oxide). Its markets range
from aerospace and food processing to steel and oil refining.
Linde: Much of Linde's business is lighter than air and bigger than everyone else's. The company is
divided into two units: Gas and Engineering and Material Handling. The world's largest producer of
industrial and medical gases, Linde also has an engineering unit that builds process plants for companies
in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and gas manufacturing industries. But don't call Linde a
lightweight. Its material handling division is one of the world's top makers of forklifts and also
manufactures warehouse equipment, transmission systems, and hydraulic control devices. In 2006 it
acquired the UK gas producer BOC Group and separated the material handling operations in preparation
for a spin-off.