In 2018, Air Products inaugurated its world-class Engineering Centre in Pune; created as one of its global hubs to support the company’s strategic focus and growing global project pipeline. From the centre Air Products executes local Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) opportunities to enhance its footprint in India; as well providing the resources and infrastructure for the execution of global EPC projects. In the last two years Air Products’ EPC centre in Pune has successfully delivered multiple local and global projects, ramped up resources and increased sourcing from India to improve competitiveness on a global basis.
Executing World-Scale Plants
There continues to be growth in the demand for Industrial Gases from various industries including: refineries, chemicals, petrochemicals, steel and the merchant market. We expect this trend to continue in the future, taking into consideration economic growth, increase in energy demand, environmental control and wider applications of industrial gases from sectors such as food and healthcare.
To support the growth and demands from these sectors, Air Products is well placed in offering some of its key technologies and products: air separation, energy application, plant application, hydrogengeneration, Rotoflow®, PRISM® Membrane, SmartFuel®,gasification and others from its centre in Pune.
Air Products' interests within the India region include the recent successful commissioning and operation of the Kochi Industrial Gas facility –which supplies vital gases to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) for its refinery capacity expansion, and the ongoing execution of six new plants by INOX Air Products, the company’s joint venture (JV) partner in India - all of which demonstrate Air Products’ focus and commitment to the region. We have a long-standing relationship with INOX Air Products, for the merchant market in India, spanning the last two decades. The Pune centre is committed to continue this collaboration and offers dedicated technology and EPC support to our JV partner through improving the competitiveness of our offerings and being self-sufficient in the execution of projects
Globally, Air Products has a strong balance sheet and robust plans for growth over the next several years. This will enable us to make valuable investments in emerging markets like India.
Pune is a good illustration of this investment, having doubled its resource capacity over the last year and with further expansion expected in the next two years which willprovidefull execution capabilities for large-scale projects.
Competitive Advantage - A Differentiator in the EPC Segment
Air Products’ competitive advantage is the degree of commitment and motivation of its people, and the organisation embodies a strong “4S-Culture” comprised of Safety – Speed – Simplicity – Self-confidence. The Pune centre is a high performing organisation with a diverse team of action oriented, agile and performance driven individuals with clear goals and a clear line of accountability to deliver their best. This is what differentiates Air Products from other organisations in the EPC segment.
A great place to work
Air Products strives to be a first-class company where people enjoy coming to work and are proud of what they do. The company promotes collaboration among people of different cultures and backgrounds and aims to provide opportunities and the right environment for all its employees to contribute and succeed, regardless of gender, colour, race, religion, orientation, country of origin or any other dimension of diversity. The company offers challenging and interesting work that improves the environment and makes our customers’ processes better. At Air Products, talented people are brought together to innovate solutions for the challenges that face us, our customers and our world.
Air Products hiring process is aimed at finding individuals that are the best skilled, most competent and best cultural fit. The focus within the Pune centre is to further balance the gender diversity by hiring more women across all levels; and to continue to nurture young talent by providing focussed career development programs for Graduate Engineer Trainees.
Air Products is also committed to support the communities around the world where its employees live and work. The company has avolunteer-oriented culture which encourages employees to share their time and talent. Employees at all levels of the company contribute their time and skills to help build strong, healthy and stable communities. Air Products corporate policy allows employees to volunteer during work hours.
The future looks bright for the Pune Centre as well as the Industrial Gas market in India and worldwide. The growth of the Pune Centre is appropriately timed as the company continues to build capacity and capability to be able to deliver world-class projects and services to address the challenges that face us, our customers, and our world.
by Anand Chordia, Managing Director, Air Products India
@EPC World Media
