Although the number of tender opportunities for new supply schemes in the US declined, BOC Gases has won a good share of the medium and small scale on-site orders across a range of customer industries. BOC's gases businesses in most of the North Pacific markets, including Japan, achieved significantly better underlying profits. In Japan, profits benefited from restructuring savings. There were particularly good results from Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. The North Pacific market remains buoyant with many opportunities for new on-site supply contracts being pursued or already won.
Major plants are under construction in Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
There are signs that the rate of growth in the Australian economy is slowing. However, there were modest increases in the profits from sales of industrial gases in Australia and New Zealand. Excavation of a cavern for storage by the Elgas joint venture of LPG supplies near Sydney began in March. When complete this will hold up to 65,000 tonnes of propane and increase the reserves of fuel gas in New South Wales from a few days to over 60 days. A firm economy, coupled with stringent cost-containment, helped BOC's business in South Africa to achieve a 14 per cent increase in operating profit compared with a year ago.