Linde Gas LLC is mainly represented in the eastern United States and Puerto Rico and has a fleet of approximately 160 tanker trucks. |
In 1990s, Linde stepped up its involvement in North America. Although the company was already represented there during the early years, it had not only lost its subsidiaries after the two world wars, but also the rights to the Linde name in the US, and its reference plants built after WWII did not immediately lead to the hoped-for breakthrough in the US market. |
In the industrial truck market, however, entry to the US market via a subsidiary was finally successful with the takeover of the Baker Material Handling Corporation in 1977.
Linde was also successful in 1996 with the strategically important purchase of the Pro-Quip Corporation (TPQ) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is, among other things, the world market leader in small hydrogen plants. After this acquisition, Tulsa was built up to become a new "Linde centre" in the US. In 1999, Linde moved the subsidiary Lotepro Inc. from New York to Oklahoma and merged Lotepro Inc. and the Pro-Quip Corp. into Linde Process Plants Inc, at the end of 2001. In 2002, the British gas company BOC acquired a 30 percent investment in this company, after which it was known as Linde BOC Process Plants LLC.
In the US, Linde also expanded in the area of technical gases with the takeover of the Sunox Inc. gas company in Charlotte through subsidiary Holox Inc. And successful entry of the American hydrogen and carbon monoxide business was achieved through a cooperative agreement with Millenium Petrochemicals Inc.
Symbolically the most important date for Linde in the US was 1st January, 1999: From this date onwards, the North American group companies were once again permitted to use the name "Linde." Some 44 years after the end of the Second World War, Linde once again owned the rights to the "Linde" name and trademark in the United States.