Producer
Nippon Sanso Holdings
~40% Japan CO2 market; dense pipeline networks; 45-75% Central/Eastern Europe via Nippon Gases Europe; 5-7% global
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Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
0
Facilities
0
Stories
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2 inputs Nippon Sanso Holdings supplies
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Intelligence
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Did you know2021
The liquid oxygen (LOX) that Nippon Sanso/MATHESON delivers in cryogenic tanker trucks to steel mills for basic oxygen furnace (BOF) oxygen lancing — the process that converts pig iron into steel — is the same cryogenic product, stored in the same vessels at the same temperature (−183°C), as the liquid oxygen used as rocket propellant oxidizer. SpaceX, ULA, and NASA fuel their rockets with LOX produced at the same air separation units (ASUs) as the LOX that helps make structural steel. During the 2021 COVID vaccine distribution surge, hospitals and medical oxygen suppliers faced an LOX shortage partly because the industrial gas supply chain (including units serving steel production) and the medical LOX distribution chain share the same tanker truck fleet, the same cryogenic storage vessels, and the same ASU production capacity — steel LOX, rocket LOX, and medical oxygen all come from the same cryogenic distillation plants.
U.S. Energy Information Administration ↗Origin2024
Nippon Sanso (日本酸素, "Japan Oxygen") was founded in 1910 in Tokyo as Japan industrialized and needed oxygen for metal cutting and welding. Over a century, Nippon Sanso built Japan's industrial gas infrastructure and expanded into electronic special gases as Japan's semiconductor industry grew in the 1970s-80s. In 2004, Nippon Sanso became the first Japanese company to acquire a major US industrial gas business when it purchased Matheson Gas Products and Tri-Gas Inc. — merging them into Matheson Tri-Gas, now operating as MATHESON. The acquisition gave Nippon Sanso direct access to US semiconductor fabs that were already qualified on Matheson specialty gases. In 2020, Nippon Sanso Holdings restructured as a holding company and remains the primary Japanese industrial gas company in a global market dominated by Linde, Air Products, and Air Liquide — three Western companies that control roughly 50% of global industrial gas supply.
Nippon Sanso Holdings Corporation ↗