Air Products held a ceremony to dedicate its new liquefied natural gas (LNG) heat exchanger manufacturing facility in Manatee County, Florida. The facility is expected to double the company’s manufacturing capacity of its proprietary technology. Air Products’ Chairman, President and CEO John McGlade; Governor of Florida Rick Scott; and company, state and local dignitaries were present at the ceremony. The facility, adjacent to the Port of Manatee, will begin manufacturing within the month as scheduled.
The location for Air Products’ Port Manatee manufacturing facility provides ready access to port services and facilitates 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 300,000ft2 facility could employ approximately 250 employees in a four-year ramp-up period.
“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, Pennsylvania, should be able to meet the LNG industry needs going forward”, said Sandy McLauchlin, general manager of Air Products’ LNG engineering and manufacturing.