Viewpoint
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News
Reminders of our industry’s agility…and roadmaps to its future
What a year. How many times has that sentence been uttered this year? These are exceptional times and 2020 is for all, very much the year we’d like to forget and move on from. Yet, writes Rob Cockerill, amidst it all we have seen strong reminders once more of the ...
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Features
All about recognition
It now seems an age away, when, in my last column for gasworld, I spoke of my wish for a Brexit deal. FortunateIy, a Trade and Co-operation Agreement was struck between the UK and the EU on the eve of the festive season, and while time will tell how that ...
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Features
The CO2 business in 2021
Here we are, deep into the Covid-19 infection, which has in some ways helped some industries and crippled others. When thinking of carbon dioxide (CO2) sources and activities this year, I projected growth among many industries to be about 3% this year. We have a number of industries which may ...
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Features
Out of uncertainty comes opportunity
Refinery operators were already facing mounting challenges in 2019: declining demand for gasoline and diesel in some markets, new and very efficient capacity coming on-stream and increasing regulatory requirements, to name a few. Then, 2020 brought even more difficulties with the unprecedented challenges to operations brought on by the Covid-19 ...
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Features
Ken Thompson: Distributors expand gases-related presence
In the early 1960s, Union Carbide’s Linde Division, Airco, and National Cylinder Gas began aligning with welding supplies distributors to expand their respective presence in cylinder gases distribution. Each of the major gas producers recognised the logistics costs in serving small end users and responded by establishing networks of independent ...
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Features
Changing world order
Some independent packaged gases distributor owners and managers met in the second week of February 2020 to share best practices. The final person to speak asked this question of his colleagues: Has anyone thought about the impacts of a pandemic?
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Features
Business resilience
A few years ago (2017), Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, published a book with Adam Grant called ‘OPTION B’ on the topic of building personal ‘resilience’ after the tragic loss of her husband. The book offered compelling insights for dealing with personal hardships in our own lives and how ...
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News
CGA looks forward to 2021
As we move into 2021, at the CGA we will continue to focus on providing industry leadership in support of our safety mission, while adopting new ways to effectively get our work done and best serve our members and the compressed gas industry as a whole, writes President and CEO ...
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News
Arrival of the ‘visible industry’
Ellen Daniels, Chief Executive of the British Compressed Gases Association (BCGA), reflects on her first year in the industry – and looks at some of the opportunities to promote the sector in 2021.
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News
Survive or thrive in 2021?
So, we’ve almost made it to the finish line. 2020 is drawing to a close. But it is also the start line as we look forward to 2021, writes Stephen B. Harrison.
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Features
Strategic workforce planning
Former chairperson and CEO of Xerox Inc., Anne Mulcahy, is often credited with the quote, “..our people are our greatest asset… our competitive advantage.” However, for a large number of industrial companies, there is a growing concern over recruiting and retaining these skilled and critical ‘assets’ due to the dynamic ...
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News
A circular approach to the shape of our future
Hydrogen rightly courts all of the attention today when we talk about the clean energies transition and green industrial revolutions. It’s the fast-emerging darling of the energy sector, it’s enjoyed an incredible year in terms of momentum, and I do firmly believe it’s about as close to a silver bullet ...
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Features
Calling all members
The results are in from our recent survey, which asked BCGA members about the future of the organisation, about Brexit and, of course, the impact of coronavirus.
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Features
Chart’s launchpad into clean energies growth
Rob Cockerill observes how Chart’s latest acquisition demonstrates its strong and evident alignment with not just its core areas of focus – but the emerging energy markets that will drive growth in the future.
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Features
Mixed fortunes in LNG markets
It’s interesting to read GlobalData’s take this week on BP’s LNG business as it pivots away from big oil in the long-term, and the commitments that it’s claimed it needs to make in what is a relatively uncertain LNG market right now.
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Features
Nitrous oxide
In recent weeks, the recreational use of nitrous oxide has been a case of concern, with extensive coverage of the problem across the UK media. As many in the compressed gases sector are aware, the recreational use of nitrous oxide has always been dangerous and has caused many deaths.
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Features
Driving customer focus and efficiency
Balancing customer focus and efficiency is absolutely essential for any company that desires to maximie its ability to attract, serve and retain customers through the various economic cycles. Covid-19 has taught us that companies that were ‘deficient’ on one or both of these two aspects are prone to suffering severe ...
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News
Exuding energy for future pathways
In a week full of quarterly financials and the broader backdrop of a year so clearly dominated by Covid-19, it would have been easy to miss the significance of two key stories recently concerning the basic building blocks of the industrial gases industry, writes Rob Cockerill.
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Features
Lessons learned in gas analysis
Joe Podolsky, Director of Business Transformation Planning at Servomex, explains how the company rose to the challenges posed by Covid-19, in an exclusive column for gasworld.
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Features
Setting out a vision for the future
Taking the reins of a trade body at the height of a global pandemic made for a challenging start for the new Chief Executive of the British Compressed Gases Association (BCGA). Here, Ellen Daniels reflects on the first few months in post and sets out her future plans for the ...