Praxair Raises Industrial Gas Prices in China Market

Praxair Raises Industrial Gas Prices in China Market

May 08, 2006

    SHANGHAI, May 8 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The joint
ventures and solely invested companies by Praxair (China)
Investment Co., Ltd. have raised the prices of bulk oxygen,
bulk nitrogen, bulk argon, and carbon dioxide by 10 percent
in northern, eastern, and southern China markets since the
beginning of April this year.

    Praxair explained that the price increases mainly
resulted from rising fuel and energy costs in producing
oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide.  Praxair has
taken this action as an effort to ensure customer
reliability and service in the tight supply market of these
products.

    Praxair is also advising its distributors of additional
charges for exceeding contract volumes.  In addition,
Praxair will be reviewing the pricing structure for direct
customers where the existing contracts permit.

    Praxair China President David Chow commented, "We
are committed to maintaining the highest level of supply
reliability for our customers in an environment of
increasing costs.  We have a continuous productivity
improvement program and have absorbed much of the previous
cost increases.  Praxair's goal is to maintain a safe and
reliably supply network for all of our customers."

    About Praxair China

    Praxair (China) Investment is a leading industrial air
provider in China. It is headquartered in Shanghai and has
13 solely invested companies and 11 joint ventures in
China. More information on Praxair China is available on
the Internet at http://www.praxair.com.cn .

    About Praxair

    With 27,000 employees and operations in 40 countries,
Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX) is a global, Fortune 500 company. 
Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and
South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2005
sales of $7.7 billion. The company produces, sells and
distributes atmospheric and process gases, and
high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products,
services and technologies bring productivity and
environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries,
including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage,
electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and
others. More information on Praxair is available on the
Internet at http://www.praxair.com .

    For more information, please contact:

     Juno Chen, 
     Praxair Asia, Media 
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Praxair China