Company: LIN
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-007990
Chunk: 77

Company: LINDE PLC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 77
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Inventories – Linde carries inventories of merchant and cylinder gases and hardgoods to supply products to its customers on a reasonable delivery schedule. On-site plants and pipeline complexes have limited inventory. Inventory obsolescence is not material to Linde’s business.

Customers – Linde is not dependent upon a single customer or a few customers.

International – Linde is a global enterprise with approximately 65% of its 2024 sales outside of the United States. The company also has majority or wholly owned subsidiaries that operate in approximately 45 European, Middle Eastern and African countries (including Germany, the United Kingdom (U.K.), France, Sweden, and the Republic of South Africa); approximately 20 Asian and South Pacific countries (including China, Australia, India and South Korea); and approximately 20 countries in North and South America (including U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil).

The company also has equity method investments operating in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Linde’s non-U.S. business is subject to risks customarily encountered in non-U.S. operations, including fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, import and export controls, and other economic, political and regulatory policies of local governments. Also, see Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and Item 7A. “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.”

Seasonality – Linde’s business is generally not subject to seasonal fluctuations to any significant extent.

Research and Development – Linde’s research and development is directed toward development of gas processing, separation and liquefaction technologies, and clean energy technologies; improving distribution of industrial gases and the development of new markets and applications for these gases. This results in the development of new advanced air separation, hydrogen, synthesis gas, natural gas, adsorption and chemical process technologies; novel clean energy and carbon management solutions; as well as the frequent introduction of new industrial gas applications. Research and 

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development is primarily conducted in Pullach, Germany, Tonawanda, New York, Burr Ridge, Illinois and Shanghai, China.

Patents and Trademarks – Linde owns or licenses a large number of patents that relate to a wide variety of products and processes. Linde’s patents expire at various times over the next 20 years. While these patents and licenses are considered important to its individual businesses, Linde does not consider its business as a whole to be materially dependent upon any one particular patent, or patent license, or family of patents. Linde also owns a large number of trademarks,