Reliant Holdings President Scott Vanderburg declined to provide further comment on the transaction to Transport Topics. The proposal could draw scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, which ordered the divestiture of assets used to produce and supply several types of industrial gas in bulk, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, nitrous oxide, liquid carbon dioxide, dry ice and packaged welding gases sold in retail stores as a condition of the Air Liquide-Airgas deal.ДЇTC also approved the sale of Air Liquide assets used to produce liquid carbon dioxide in Galva and Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, in December to Reliant Holdings, a company based in Odessa, Texas, that supplies carbon dioxide gas for fermentation and processing of corn into ethanol and for use in the food and beverage industry, the production of dry ice and stimulation of oil and gas wells. вЂњWe want to combine our companiesвЂ™ business and technology capabilities and form a global industrial gas leader,вЂќ Linde CEO Aldo Belloni said. вЂњThe strategic combination between Linde and Praxair would leverage the complementary strengths of each across a larger global footprint and create a more resilient portfolio with increased exposure to long-term macrogrowth trends,вЂќ Praxair CEO Steve Angel said in the Dec. The combination of Praxair and Linde would create the worldвЂ™s largest supplier of industrial gases with annual revenue of $30 billion. The combined Praxair-Linde fleet would have ranked No.

51 with 733 tractors, 2,270 straight trucks and 2,060 trailers. 31 on the private TT100 with 1,115 tractors, 1,787 straight trucks and 3,677 trailers, while Linde North America, based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, ranks No. Linde owns Lincare Holdings Inc., for example, and earlier this month, the company announced the purchase of The Service Center, a Broadview, Illinois-based provider of medical oxygen and respiratory equipment repair services in the Midwest and Southeast. To offset slowing growth, industrial gas suppliers are branching out into medical gases to secure new revenue streams, Bloomberg reported. The push by industrial gas companies to consolidate is driven, in part, by the need to reduce expenses in the wake of slowing growth in China and weaker demand from steel and oil and natural-gas customers, according to industry analysts interviewed by Bloomberg News.Д®xecutives at Praxair and Linde said combining operations could save as much as $1 billion annually, although itвЂ™s not clear if the cost-cutting moves will directly affect fleet operations. In a filing in September, American Air Liquide and Airgas reported having a combined fleet of 2,103 tractors, 4,200 straight trucks and 3,707 trailers. The fleet is even larger now, based on data filed with the U.S. 19 on the Transport Topics list of the Top 100 private carriers for 2016 with a combined fleet of 1,754 tractors, 4,117 straight trucks and 3,126 trailers. The merger of American Air Liquide and Airgas, in fact, propelled the company to No. All four of the companies involved in these two mergers operate some of the largest fleets in North America.

Industrial gases are used in a number of sectors, including oil and gas, steel making, health care and food manufacturing. by FranceвЂ™s LвЂ™Air Liquide SA for $13.4 billion. The transaction, valued at $35.6 billion, follows the purchase in 2016 of U.S.-based Airgas Inc.

In December, Praxair Inc., based in Danbury, Connecticut, made an offer to acquire German company Linde Group.

Lincare a linde company