The result of sales (from Jan. to Dec. 2016) attained by 170 gas distributors selling over a billion yen who closed fiscal accounting term has been summarized to be 1 trillion 121 billion and 137 million yen.

According to the previous ranking in 2015, the sales of 177 distributors amounted to 1 trillion 136 billion and 745 million yen. This time, however, there were some distributors whose gas business was so low in percentage that they were not included in the ranking. Therefore, in comparison with the same number (170) ranked in 2016, the growth was found to be 0.09% which is nearly flat. According to the ranking, the sales amount of gas distributors each selling over 5 billion in 2016 increased by 0.6% comparing with last year. However, it should be noted particularly that the very high increase rate was attained by the large-scaled companies whose sales exceed 20 billion yen.

The business form of industrial gas distributors comprises a variety of fields and genre of business including welding machines, welding electrodes, laser processors and other mechanical items as well as households using such an energy as LPG and gas cylinders for general and medical use. It naturally was an effective risk hedge to bring a stable business management. As there is a difference in the composition of business among distributors, any simple comparison cannot be done. However, judging from the ranking at this time, many of small-scale distributors suffered less business than last year, while many of larger distributors attained more business results than last year.


Reviewing the gas-related market in 2016, it was a period of the declining sales price of LP gas affected by the continually dropping oil price since 2015, which also caused a decrease in the sales of LP gas-related business.

In the machinery-related field, on the other hand, there were various systems of subsidy for introduction and tax benefits as Government’s pump-priming measures, which promoted the introduction of gas-related equipment like laser processing machines and welding robots. On the contrary to proceeding of the introduction of new machines and equipment, the business of consumables like gas was dull and the high-machine/low-gas trend has remained.

Regarding the medical field, the delivery of medical oxygen to hospitals is on the decrease and the growth of the Home Oxygen Therapy (HOT) business has turned out to be less noticeable. Some distributors are looking for a business development in the area of medical services which do not depend upon gases.
In the electronics-related business area, capital investments have restarted in the plants of some device manufacturers, which seems to have contributed to the business recovery of the distributors who play the role of gate-keeper of semiconductor fabs.

Large-scale projects are only just starting now represented by the construction projects in the metropolitan area toward the Tokyo Olympics, the tunnel construction for linear Shinkansen, all of which are relating to the demand of gas.

There has also appeared a movement of new demand for gas in the service industries including agriculture, fishery, food and aesthetics.

Such a movement is seen not necessarily in the urban areas, but the gas demand is spreading across the country now. It means the present market circumstances are not so bad. On the other hand, however, negative factors to affect the supply of industrial gases are coming out causing a labor shortage and the rise of logistic costs.

There is also a worry about the rise of consumption tax and a probable stagnation of post-Olympic economy. It might be a probable reason now that many private companies dare to invest for infrastructure now overseeing the future now that so many companies are proceeding with renewing filling facilities or enhancing business bases at this moment.

These days there are quite rapid changes around the manufacturing industries as seen in the motorization of automobiles and general automation by IoT and AI.

For those who are at a position of distributors facing gas consumption at the front line, a responsive capability is now required to catch up the rapid changes.