Linde managed to shrug off a challenging and largely “stagnant” economic climate to post an adjusted operating profit of $2.3bn (up 6%) in the first quarter.
Sales totalled $8.1bn, down marginally by 1% year-on-year, as the company once again grappled with ‘economic headwinds’ across core markets. Sales were flat in Americas ($3.5bn) and Asia-Pacific ($1.5bn) and dropped 4% in EMEA ($2bn).
CEO Sanjiv Lamba said, “I’m proud of how the Linde team continues to deliver high-quality results despite economic headwinds. We had another strong quarter, growing EPS 10%, ROC to 25.6% and expanding operating margins 200 basis points, reaching 28.9%. These results demonstrate the resiliency of our integrated industrial gas model through optimising our network density.”
Source: Linde
The bright performers were manufacturing (22% of sales) and chemicals & energy (21%), while healthcare (17%) and metals & mining (14%) were strong, and both food & beverage and electronics accounted for 9% each.
With increased focus on sustainability, Linde sourced more than a third of global electricity from low carbon sources, increased green hydrogen production in Brazil and signed long-term agreements to buy renewable energy in China.
The multinational aims to double its low carbon energy purchases by 2028 and forecasting $50bn in clean energy investments over the next decade.
Linde recently achieved a ‘leadership’ score for its approach to water security and climate change (click here).
In gasworld global’s April cover story, Lamba spoke exclusively about the challenges presented by decarbonisation, managing an 80-countries workforce and the ‘limitless’ approach it takes to developing its business and culture, including insights on leadership and employee engagement (click here). Last year, the company recorded an operating profit of $9.1bn from full-year sales of $33bn.
Yesterday (May 1), Linde announced it will invest $150m in an on-site ASU in Boden, Northern Sweden, to supply industrial gases to the world’s first large-scale green steel production plant. The ASU will generate oxygen, nitrogen and argon for H2 Green Steel’s integrated plant (click here).
“Today, innovation is even more relevant in a fast-changing world with climate change, space exploration, artificial intelligence and quantum computing,” added Lamba.
“There’s no doubt that air separation and air gases will continue to play an important role in the future, including new applications supporting the space industry, enabling energy storage and reducing energy consumption in data centres.”
