Gas World (Pvt) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Industrial Gases Pvt Ltd, recently announced their plans to add yet another ASU Plant to increase their Medical and Industrial Oxygen production capacity, a company news release said.

Gas World (established in 1992) is a newer entrant to the industry following the very long-established Ceylon Oxygen, one privately owned but later made a Government Owned Businesss Undertaking in the seventies.It was only in the third week of April 2021 that they commissioned their third plant boosting production capacity to almost 38 tons per day. The commissioning of this plant was long delayed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in China from November 2019 till end 2020.

As announced by Mr Sumith Guruge, Chairman of Industrial Gases (Pvt) Ltd and Gas World (Pvt) Ltd “this was a part of our normal capacity expansion based on pre Covid-19 economic conditions. Fortunately, this plant was commissioned in April 2021 enabling local production capacity to meet the bulk of the Sri Lanka’s health sector needs during the early days of the third wave of Covid-19. This enabled the company to increase its supply of Oxygen to the health and industrial sectors from around 10 to 40 tons per day”.Guruge is confident in having the new plant up and running within a few months as opposed to the usual time taken to commission such a plant. He also stated that ” we have maintained our prices to the health sector stable throughout the pandemic and with the commissioning of the fourth plant, Gas World will double its Oxygen and Nitrogen output.

“With a vibrant vaccination program and other health safety measures in place, we are confident that the pandemic would fade-away sooner than expected enabling the local industries such as construction, production related, Port City development etc. to experience a considerable boost”.

As a responsible and a reliable ‘Partner in Progress”, our goal is to be prepared for such an exponential growth to ensure an uninterrupted supply of gases without any adverse impact on national development, he said.

Asked about over capacity in a post pandemic environment Guruge stated “We are looking at the broader goals of our industry. We must provide uninterrupted supply to all our customers, not only the health sector but all of the industries we supply, from ship building to food processing and even our neighborhood welding plants. Any investor will be able to access our industrial gas without an interruption. Hopefully we will be able to provide more in-plant Oxygen supply to more hospitals.”

Industrial Gases (Pvt) Ltd. was established in the year 1992 and subsequently in 1997 was taken over by “Messer Industrial Gases [Pvt] Ltd”, part of Messer GmbH of Germany, a pioneer in the industrial gases business globally, which was again taken over by Mr. Sumith Guruge, the local partner.

With the ownership change in 2007, Industrial Gases (Pvt) Ltd continued to increase their market presence in Sri Lanka. The company is a major supplier of industrial Oxygen, Acetylene, Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen servicing many industrial sectors including Manufacturing, Steel Fabrication, Construction, Seafood Processing, Milk and Food Packaging etc.Gas World (Pvt) Ltd was formed in 2011, mainly for the supply of medical Gases to the health sector. The company provides the health sector with ‘on site’ high capacity tanks with piping for bed side delivery as well as portable refill tanks and cylinders. Gas World also caters to the increasing demand of oxygen gas filled mini cylinders for domestic health care services.