Is pricing discipline the secret engine behind Linde India’s sustained growth?

INDIA’S ECONOMY grew at over 8% on an average in the past three years, the second-highest among G20 nations and almost twice the average of emerging market economies in FY23. Riding on strong domestic demand, significant investments in public infrastructure and a growing financial sector, the growth rate in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was 5.1% in FY23.

In line with this growth, Linde India, a leading oxygen and industrial gases manufacturer and related project management expert, registered a 23.46% CAGR in net sales in the past three years. In the case of net profit, the CAGR was 42.16%. And thanks to its business growth and operational performance, Linde India has a market capitalisation of over ₹53,000 crore. The company has claimed the 16th spot in Fortune India’s maiden 100 Emerging Stars list.

With a legacy dating back to 1935, Kolkata-based Linde India is part of Linde PLC, formed after the merger of global industrial gas leaders Germany-based Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair Inc. in a $73 billion deal in 2018. Formerly known as BOC India Ltd in India (Linde AG had acquired BOC Group PLC, U.K., the parent company of BOC India, in 2006), it was later renamed Linde India Ltd in February 2013.

Operating in over 80 countries and with more than 66,000 employees, Linde PLC is headed by its India-origin CEO Sanjiv Lamba. Its ASEAN & South Asia business is headed by Moloy Banerjee, president, Linde, and India business by MD Abhijit Banerjee.

In 2024, Linde signed 59 long-term agreements to build-own-operate 64 plants at customer sites globally, many of them in India. Linde India supplies industrial, specialty and healthcare gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, helium, carbon dioxide, xenon, and krypton. It also supplies pipeline gases directly to major industrial clients across sectors such as primary steel, glass, and chemicals, supported by over 39 plants across the country. The company has one of the largest air separation units (ASUs) in Jamshedpur, which mainly supplies to Tata Steel.

In fact, Linde India is expanding its existing supply of industrial gases to Tata Steel in Odisha. The company already supplies industrial gases from its existing two on-site plants to the company’s iron- and steel-making facility at the Kalinganagar industrial complex. It has also acquired two additional ASUs, more than doubling its on-site capacity, and has signed a long-term agreement for the supply of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon to support Tata Steel’s capacity expansion projects.

Linde India commissioned a new 250-metric-tonne-per-day ASU at Ludhiana in October last year, its second merchant plant in northern India, after Selaqui, Uttarakhand. “As India’s economy continues to expand and diversify, we are proud to support traditional end markets, such as metals, manufacturing, and mining, along with new growth segments, such as electronics, space research, defence, healthcare, and solar energy,” Abhijit Banerjee had said while commissioning the plant.

At Panipat in Punjab, the company is building its second large-scale hydrogen plant, built, owned and operated by Linde entities for Indian Oil. It will also be one of Linde’s largest on-site plants in India, with a total combined industrial gas production capacity of 142,200 cubic metres (Nm3) per hour. The company’s gas sales grew 10.2% to generate ₹2,000 crore in revenue in FY24, driven by high demand across key sectors, including steel, and strong pricing discipline and focus on digitalisation.

Linde India is also one of the country’s leading medical oxygen suppliers, and has 22 healthcare power supply agreements (PSAs) for installations across the country. Besides, innovations such as Entonex, a patented mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen as an analgesic and anxiolytic agent used in pain management during childbirth and colonoscopy procedures, add to the company’s product portfolio. There’s also a ‘NO therapy system’ used for organ transplant and treatment of respiratory distress in newborns.

With the manufacturing sector set for high growth, a key supply chain industry such as industrial gas production will likely lead to huge gains for Linde India in the coming years.