BOC India Ltd is a leading supplier of gases and related products and services in India. They are the second largest Industrial Gases company in the world. The company operates in four business areas namely, industrial gases, medical gases, special gases, and projects. The company has more than 20 production facilities, including the Asia`s largest air separation units. BOC India Ltd was incorporated in January 1935 with the name Indian Oxygen and Acetylene Company. The company was promoted by BOC Group UK, as a private limited company. The company was converted into a public limited company in January 1958. In the year 1989, the company name was changed into Indian Oxygen Ltd and in February 1995, the company got their present name BOC India Ltd. In September 1, 1998, the company commissioned the plant at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. In February 2001, the company entered into a strategic alliance with Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) for distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The company's Contracts Division has successfully designed and commissioned a pilot Helium recovery Plant at Bakreshwar in West Bengal, to extract Helium from geo-thermal springs. In August 1, 2003, the company commissioned 225 tpd Air Separation Unit at Jamshedpur for meeting the additional gases requirement of Tata Steel. During the year 2004-05, two prestigious projects viz 2x55 tpd Vaccum Pressure Swing Adsorbtion plants for Kochi Refineries and compressed air facilities for National Aerospace Laboratory were commissioned. In August 2004, a new world class compression facility was commissioned at Bangalore in Karnataka. In November 2004, the company entered into a long term gas supply agreement with Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Limited (JVSL) for supply of gaseous oxygen and nitrogen to them under a 15 year supply contract. A New liquid compression plant at Taloja Special Gases site has been commissioned in February, 2005. In March 2006, the company commissioned their new state of the art 65 tpd Air Separation Unit at Medak near Hyderabad. In June 2006, the company has signed a long term gas supply contract with JSW Steel Ltd for supply of over 3,000 tonnes per day of gaseous oxygen, nitrogen and argon. For this purpose, the company is setting up an onsite Air Separation Unit at JSW steel works at Bellary in Karnataka. In addition, the plant will also produce liquid products to meet the growing demand from customers in Southern India. In September 2006, the Linde AG acquires the ownership of The BOC Group plc, UK, the holding company under the scheme of arrangement approved by the courts in UK. In August 2007, the company has singed a contracts with GKN Sinter Metals Ltd for supply 420 Nm3 of nitrogen per hour to their Works at Pimpri, Pune for which the company is in the process of installing an onsite nitrogen generator at their Pimpri Works. They also signed a contract with Electrosteel Castings Ltd for supply of 35 tons per day of oxygen to their Works at Khardah in Kolkata, for which the company is in the process of installing an onsite oxygen generator at their Khardah Works. In October 2007, the company's Project Engineering Division has won two contracts from Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) aggregating to Rs 318 crore for setting up of two Air Separation Units at their units namely Rourkela Steel Plant and IISCO Steel Plant. In May 2008, the company has commenced their production in Air Separation Unit at the Rourkela steel works of Adhunik Metaliks Ltd which has the capacity of 100 tonnes per day. The company is in the process of setting up a merchant Air Separation Unit in the State of Himachal Pradesh as a part of their growth strategy to penetrate the markets in North India. The Air Separation Unit is expected to be commissioned in mid 2009.