According to our search, there were 56 domestic gas distributors out of all those closing the FY2016 account who marked a sales amount of 5 billion or over, with an overall amount exceeding 871.035 billion.

The total sales amount of the 56 distributors in the previous year (FY2015) was 865.779 billion. It means that the growth is nearly flat with an increase of 0.6% compared with the previous year but a decrease by 0.4% compared with the result in the FY2014. In short, it means the business performance of the domestic industrial gas distributors has been continuing at a similar level.

Since FY2008, Gas Review has been summing up the sales amount of the domestic gas distributors who handle medical gases, welding gas and LPG as well as industrial gases. As for the companies handling 1 billion or more, we have made out a ranking by our own way.

Outlining the gas-related market in 2016 concerning the domestic industrial gas distributors, the period like that of 2015 experienced an apparently decreasing sales of LPG-related business affected by the drop of LPG price due to the declining oil price.

On the other hand, it was also a period of progress in the introduction of machinery and equipment including such gas-related equipment as laser processors or welding robots in the midst of the continual support of introducing new mechanical facilities as a part of the government’s pump priming measures.

The business of industrial gas distributors covers mainly the fields of equipment and machinery related to energy, welding and consumables other than the industrial gases. In terms of sales, it was remarkably characteristic like the year of 2015 that energy decreased and machinery/equipment increased.

The electronics industry which was suffering down-scale or integration arrangements has got out of the bottom. In some device producing plants capital investments were revived. It seems to have contributed to the recovery of the distributors who are playing the role of gate-keeper of semiconductor fabs.

Nevertheless, the delivery of packaged gas still stays in a stagnant trend. Despite the new investment in equipment, it does not work for the recovery of line operations using the equipment. The new construction related to the Tokyo Olympic Games could hardly make any progress. After all the year resulted in no contribution to any increase of delivery.

In 2017 with three more years remaining until the Olympics, the construction activities are going to start after all, but inter-regional or inter-enterprise differentials are expanding. Even in the same field of business or an identical area there is a noticeable growing gap in the business performances between enterprises or plants.

In the medical field the regionally major hospitals now come across the final stage of construction to build up facilities. There have already appeared a reactive backlash phenomenon in the region where the investment has ended. Any growth of consumption of medical gases can hardly be expected. So, the perspective of medical gas distributors is being shifted to the home healthcare or other medical services.

While the existing demand of cylinder gas stays stagnant, new demand is showing up in agriculture, fishery, food and other fields of service-related industries like food, beverage or aesthetics.

In the new fields of application there are vegetable factories, fish farms, food packages of supermarket and carbonic hot springs as we have so far reported frequently. They are creating demand of gases across the country, not limiting to the urban area.

Although the quantitative scale is not so large, elaborate responsive cares are required depending upon the climatic and natural features. We can say that these applications can make the best of the advantages of the regional distributors in close contact with the area.

For reference, 34 companies out of the 56 gas distributors who marked the sales of 5 billion or over in 2016, achieved a sales of 10 billion or over with a total sales of 713.975 billion. The result of the 34 companies in comparison with 2015 was an increase by 1%. The number of companies marking a sales from 5 billion up to 10 billion was 22, with a total of 157.06 billion down 1.3% from the previous year.