On July 29, Nippon Sanso Holdings announced that its Asian/Oceanian affiliate Nippon Sanso (Thailand) headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand (President: Suwan Runggeratigul) built the 4th Thai ASU in Rayong Province, Eastern Thailand, and already put it in operation from July.

Thailand is now proceeding with developments mainly in the integrated industrial area called “Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC)” of Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao provinces, based upon the economic development plan titled “Thailand 4.0” posted by the Thai Government in 2015.

Nippon Sanso has already built one ASU in Chonburi province and the new construction at this time is intended to supply industrial gases constantly to users anticipating a continuous growth of demand for industrial gases in those areas.

The output capacity of the unit and the invested amount are not disclosed. Regarding a future plan, the company says, “We plan to supply to the major automobile-related users by pipeline, and also to expand our business base and scale by means of distributing liquefied gases to the electronics and the food industries”.

Nippon Sanso Thailand was founded as API (Air Products Industry) in September 1977. Capital investments were made by former Taiyo Sanso in 1970s and by former Nippon Sanso in 1990s, and then former Taiyo Nippon Sanso acquired the ownership in May 2015.

In Thailand the company has so far built two units in the areas around Bangkok (Chonburi and Ayutthaya provinces) and one unit in the northern area in the vicinity of Chiang Mai. In addition, it possesses a nitrogen on-site and a hydrogen filling plant. The annual business scale is about JPY5 billion with customers consisting half of Japanese companies and the other half of the local enterprises.