Messer Group acquired the majority of Linde AG’s gases business in North America and certain Linde and Praxair business activities in South America effective March 1, 2019 in a joint venture – called Messer Industries GmbH – with CVC Capital Partners Fund VII (“CVC”). Messer Industries invested a total of around 3.6 billion US dollars (3.2 billion euros). Messer Group contributed the majority of its Western European companies to the joint venture. Over the course of the next few years, the joint venture will be fully integrated into the family-run Messer Group, thereby establishing a global gas group under the leadership of the Messer family. Messer Group’s regional operations are currently focused in Eastern Europe and Asia. Asia already represents the largest industrial gases market and is expected to have the highest growth rate in the medium term. Also with Messer Industries’ participation, in 2019 strategies were developed for the Americas and Western Europe, in order to sustain business success in the coming years. The common aim that they all share is to achieve safety, customer focus, profitable growth and fair payment for our products through a team culture focused on efficiency, success and motivation in combination with innovation and a highly satisfied workforce and clientele. 

In June 2019, the cornerstone was laid for Messer’s third air separation unit in Germany. Together with the gas manufacturer basi Schoberl, Messer is investing some 32 million euros in the production of oxygen, nitrogen and argon. Construction on the grounds of SAINT-GOBAIN ISOVER G+H AG in Speyer is scheduled for completion in spring of 2020. Messer has already been supplying gases to the customer by trailer since May 2019. In the near future, the new on-site air separation unit will minimize those gas shipments and the accompanying carbon footprint.

In the period from 2017 to 2019, Messer invested 37 million euros to build up its Hungarian market. With gas production units and plants at twelve major customers, Messer is the market leader in the on-site atmospheric gases business in Hungary. In 2019, Messer signed an agreement with MOL Petrochemicals, a leading petrochemical group, for the construction of a new onsite unit to supply nitrogen and instrument air for a new polyoil complex in Tiszaújváros in northern Hungary. When the unit goes into operation in 2021, it will be one of Messer’s largest on-site units in southeastern Europe. Messer also built two new nitrogen generators in Hungary – one in Dunavarsány and one in Hatvan – and a third one is currently under construction. In response to the growing demand, the construction of two additional CO₂ plants has tripled the utilization capacity of the carbon dioxide field near Ölbő, Hungary, over the past two years.

In 2020, the credit agency Bisnode D&B Schweiz AG granted Messer in Switzerland a “Credit Rating Certificate” with “Risk Indicator 1” (which stands for minimum default risk) for the tenth consecutive time. Only two percent of all companies in Switzerland meet the requirements for that best category. The certificate sets Messer in Switzerland apart as a trustworthy, reliable, financially healthy and stable business partner. Bisnode D&B is a partner in the network of Dun & Bradstreet, the world’s largest service provider for business-to-business economic data.

In 2019, Messer achieved another breakthrough in the electronics industry and put gas supply plants into operation in Sichuan at Truly and BOE for, among other things, high-purity nitrogen. BOE and Truly are leading companies in the electronics market in China. In addition, Messer China signed a supply contract for ultra-high-purity industrial gases with HKC Mianyang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd. HKC is a leading supplier of large-format LCD displays. In March, another CO₂ recovery unit of Messer China began producing food-grade CO₂. Located on the grounds of Yunnan Dawei Ammonia Producing Co., Ltd., it is Messer’s fourth CO₂ unit in China and its second in Yunnan Province. Through purification and liquefaction, it converts the excess carbon dioxide generated by Dawei’s production process into quality products for use in food, pharmaceuticals, and industrial and agricultural applications
In September, Messer China laid the cornerstone for another air separation unit and a condenser in Hunan Province.

In October, a second air separation unit and a condenser were put into operation in the central Chinese city of Chongqing. The new capacity makes Messer the leading supplier of liquefied atmospheric gases in Chongqing and now also enables us to supply gas via pipeline to other industrial customers and chemical companies in the chemical park. 

In 2019, Messer put two new air separation units into operation to supply industrial gases to a new Hoa Phat steelworks in Dung Quất, Quảng Ngai Province. That makes Dung Quất one of our company’s largest production sites in the world. In Hai Duong, Messer Vietnam put the fourth air separator into operation to supply the same customer. In the electronics segment, Messer has been supplying Seoul Semiconductors with oxygen from a generator since June 2019. 

Since January 2020 the still-young Messer Thailand has been operating for two years. In 2019, a new head office opened in Bangkok and a bulk tank farm opened in Samut Prakan. The company expects to have its own production site within the next few years.

In 2019, Messer Industries USA invested in the construction of a new CO₂ plant in Keyes, California. The plant delivers 450 tons of carbon dioxide per day and supplies many companies in northern California and surrounding areas. Carbon dioxide is primarily used in the food and beverage and electronics industries. Messer currently operates two CO₂ plants and two air separation units in California.

Messer Industries USA put a new air separation unit (ASU) into operation in Adel, Georgia, investing more than 40 million dollars in the highly efficient plant. It supplies gases to companies across in the southeastern U.S., strengthening Messer’s presence in that growing region. Our customers there serve the healthcare sector, produce food and beverages, manufacture metal and glass, and operate independent welding and gas centers.

Messer Industries USA is also investing more than 34 million euros (38 million dollars) in the construction of a new air separation unit in Indianapolis, Indiana. Scheduled for completion in early 2021, the facility will produce the atmospheric gases oxygen, nitrogen and argon in technical and medical grades. Future customers will come from the healthcare sector as well as from the chemical, food and beverage, glass and metal processing industries. 

In 2020, the average company service of our employees since they joined Messer was 10.2 years. Employee turnover was 13.2 percent.
Messer in Hungary established an onboarding program to improve the integration of new colleagues: new employees are assigned a personal mentor, who helps them get situated during their first months on the job and is ready to assist them in a wide range of matters. The program also includes short assignments in other departments to promote a better understanding of those roles and provide interdisciplinary context. This lets new employees get to know their key contacts better, which builds greater social cohesion and a feeling of comfort and security. Their direct supervisors discuss the integration process with them on a monthly basis.
 

Messer conducts employee surveys in Europe and the Americas.
In Europe, 1,421 people participated in the survey; that represents 46 percent of the European workforce. The results point to an emphasis on work safety as well as a strong, committed corporate culture: 92 percent of respondents, for example, agreed that safety is the highest priority at Messer; 92 percent also indicated that they were satisfied with how Messer has handled the Covid-19 pandemic. 94 percent of participants said they were proud to work for Messer; and 89 percent agreed that they have a positive feeling about the direction in which Messer is headed. When asked to name three areas on which our local management is focusing greater attention, respondents identified employee development, communication and digitalization.

Since the end of 2019, Messer Americas has been conducting surveys at six-month intervals, in order to determine the needs and requirements of the workforce and to establish appropriate employee development programs. In the most recent survey at the end of 2020, 54 percent of employees in the Americas participated. As in Europe, the employees gave particularly positive assessments of the safety culture and pandemic management and also strongly agreed with the strategic direction and mission of the company.