Air Products recently dedicated a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) heat-exchanger manufacturing facility in Manatee County, Fla., which will double the company's manufacturing capacity. The facility currently employs more than 50 people and will begin manufacturing as scheduled within the month.
"This plant will meet a defined LNG production market need around the globe," said Air Products' chairman, president and CEO John McGlade. "At this location, Air Products will be able to supply the additional capacity required to stay ahead of increasing customer demand and specifically for the manufacture of larger LNG heat exchangers."
The location of the new manufacturing facility provides ready access to port services and will facilitate global shipping of what is typically already very large equipment. It will also allow Air Products to manufacture the even larger LNG heat exchangers that are being demanded by the market. The roughly 300,000-square-foot facility could employ approximately 250 employees in a four-year ramp-up period.
"The employees we have already hired at Port Manatee are eager and ready to get started manufacturing LNG heat exchangers," said Sandy McLauchlin, general manager of Air Products' LNG engineering and manufacturing. "This site has exactly what we need to meet developing market needs, that being readily available port access that removes any shipping constraints we had previously faced with this larger equipment. This new second facility, along with our current manufacturing plant in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., should be able to meet the LNG industry needs going forward."
For more than 45 years, Air Products has manufactured LNG heat exchangers as large as 15.5 feet in diameter, 180 feet long and weighing as much as 500 tons at its existing facility in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
For more information, visit www.airproducts.com.