Linde and Air Products expand production at Bethlehem, PA, JV

Murray Hill, N.J., U.S. May 20, 2008 — East Coast Oxygen, a 50/50 production joint venture between Linde North America and Air Products (NYSE:APD), has expanded the production capacity of its facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The new liquefaction unit, which was recently commissioned, boosts production capacity by almost 600 tons a day and makes this plant one of the largest liquefied nitrogen, oxygen and argon gases production sites in the United States.

Gases produced at the Bethlehem plant are trucked to merchant customers throughout the northeastern U.S. for use in applications such as food chilling and freezing, chemical production and metals manufacturing.

“This location already provided us with easy access to customers throughout the region. This expansion gives us a cost effective means of improving our ability to supply a growing customer base and to strengthen our East Coast supply network, which runs from Maine to Georgia,” said Pat Murphy, president, Linde North America.

Tom Ward, Air Products’ vice president, North America Gases, said, “This expansion is consistent with Air Products efforts to leverage its existing North America asset base in order to meet the growing needs of its diverse customer base in the region.”

The Bethlehem JV plant originally began operating in 2000.

About Linde
Linde North America is the U.S. subsidiary of Linde AG and part of The Linde Group. The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with more than 50,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2007 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.3 billion (USD 18.7 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards earnings-based and sustainable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.
Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment – in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. Linde is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.
For more information, see The Linde Group web site at www. linde.com

Contact:
Peter Gavigan
Linde corporate communications
908-771-1512
Peter.gavigan@linde.com