“Although there was a substantial drop in the production of acetylene cylinders after the Lehman shock, the number of the cylinders produced for the period from January to June 2012 reached 8,310 exceeding the accumulated number of 7,518 produced throughout 2011, according to the production statistics announced by Japan Welded Gas Cylinder Association.

Roughly speaking, there are two factors to have caused this phenomenon. One is the demand for replacement of aged cylinders. For the purpose to assure safety, it is mandatory to replace acetylene cylinders aged more than 38 years with new ones, according to the industry standard. The other factor is the ongoing trend of preparation for the expected demands relating to restoration in the devastated Tohoku district visited by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

With regard to the LPG and general gas cylinders flown out due to the Tsunami disasters, the associations related to high-pressure gas business and the waste cylinder disposers carried out recovery operations from November 2011 through March of this year. The total number of recovered LPG cylinders was 16,256 and that of general high-pressure gas cylinders including oxygen was 2,361, in which 533 acetylene cylinders were included. The collected acetylene cylinders were in a minority as number, but all of them damaged by seawater were found to be of no use any longer and were scrapped. Even after April, the recovery work is still going on during the debris removal operations.”