LNG

Chart Industries, the leading US equipment-maker for LNG and industrial and new energy projects, has signed a memorandum of understanding to supply liquefaction process technology, associated equipment as well as a series of fuelling stations for another US company.

Chart said its deal was with BNG Clean Fuel Corp., a private company focused on the delivery of scalable infrastructure solutions for the production, storage, and delivery of hydrogen fuel to the power, marine, rail, oil and gas, mining and transportation industries,.

“Additionally, the companies will collaborate to develop further industry relationships with customers in the end-use industries described above to utilize BNG’s ‘hub, spoke and wheel model’ facilities for hydrogen production, virtual pipeline networks, bulk cargo shipping, and fuel dispensing stations.

Chart said that while no orders had been booked relating to this MOU or project, they are anticipated to be booked in 2023 and 2024 for both the equipment and process technology scope.

BNG is focused on its their Denver H2 pilot hub with dual-22 ton per day capacity hydrogen liquefaction facilities, a centrally located storage terminal, 10 liquid hydrogen stations, tankers and mobile fuelling equipment which will be provided by Chart.

“BNG is taking a pragmatic approach to scaling of the hydrogen economy, with a focus on the hub and spoke model starting in North America,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s Chief Executive and President.

“This MOU brings Chart’s extensive technology and equipment experience to the project. We look forward to supporting BNG’s endeavours to deliver another option to the hydrogen end-use market,” it added.

Eliot Barton, CEO of BNG Clean Fuel which is a privately held Delaware Corporation based in Aurora, said he was pleased with the deal.

“In partnering with Chart Industries, BNG has aligned with a recognized global leader in the manufacturing of the highest-quality equipment in the industry,” said Barton.

“This relationship will help solidify our capitalization efforts and attract additional key partners to ensure the success of our first hydrogen hub and rapidly develop other planned regional markets,” he added.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker and industrial gases and clean energy company, has signed definitive agreements to acquire Howden, a leading UK-based global provider air and gas handling products and services, for a purchase price of $4.4 billion from affiliates of KPS Capital Partners LP.

US LNG equipment-maker Chart Industries completes acquisition of the Microbulk cryogenic tank intellectual property, equipment, and other assets from privately-held IC Biomedical.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment-maker, said orders in the third quarter rose 7.4 percent from the previous three months as LNG fuel infrastructure demand filled a gap left by a pause in orders from large LNG ventures on the Gulf Coast.

Third-quarter net income rose to $21.7 million compared with $18.80M in the same quarter of 2019.

Orders amounted to $262.7M in the three months, particularly in the Distribution and Storage division for hydrogen equipment, water treatment, LNG regas, ISO containers and repair, service and leasing.

The orders were lower than the $338M achieved in the same three months of 2019, though took the backlog to $684.9M, with record levels seen in both the Distribution & Storage Eastern Hemisphere and Distribution & Storage Western Hemisphere units.

“Orders continued to be very strong for LNG infrastructure related equipment, including the highest trailer order quarter since the third quarter of 2018, continued record levels for fueling stations and record order levels for ISO containers,” said Chart.

Chart added that it continued to see strengthening demand across the business with the exception of its Energy & Chemicals FinFans (E&C FinFans) segment where third- quarter orders were down $28.9M when compared to the third quarter of 2019.

Chart's orders of $262.7M were down slightly from the third quarter of 2019, which included a $6.6M air cooled heat exchanger order for Calcasieu Pass LNG.

D&S West and D&S East orders increased 38 percent and 13.9 percent respectively over the third quarter of 2019.

“The strength of our order activity in the third quarter 2020 included multiple records and a very strong start to October orders, even without all industrial gas customers fully back in the field due to continued Covid-19 restrictions,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s Chief Executive and President.

Evanko noted that the company took recent steps to expand its hydrogen product offering and expanded long-term agreements would set the stage for strong 2021 results.

Booked orders were with 147 new customers in the third quarter and in the year-to-date numbered 407.

Chart noted in its highlights that it signed 10 new long-term agreements with major customers, including for repair and service, hydrogen and LNG fueling stations.

The third-quarter 2020 HLNG vehicle tank orders were over $20 million, the second highest quarterly level.

“This has been driven by high demand from our customers on long-term agreements, demand for LNG over-the-road vehicles in geographies outside of Europe, including South America, Russia and Japan, and expanded applications for these tanks such as for LNG buses,” said Chart.

“LNG infrastructure and small-scale applications are continuing to expand, and we expect that to continue over the next several years,” the company explained.

“And while big LNG projects remain on the horizon, final Investment decisions have been delayed. Yet even with those delays, in the third quarter 2020, we received an early engineering release for a big LNG terminal for brazed aluminum heat exchangers and cold boxes to be used on the natural gas pre-treatment Train,” said Chart.

After the third quarter, Chart reported the October 2020 divestiture of the cryobiological business for $320M in cash.

Proceeds were used to pay down debt, close the $10M acquisition of US Worthington Industries cryogenic trailer and hydrogen trailer business in Theodore, Alabama, and to invest in French firm McPhy to expand commercial hydrogen opportunities.

Chart reiterated its full-year 2020 guidance of revenue of $1.18 billion and associated diluted adjusted earnings per share of $2.25.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based company said its full-year 2021 outlook was for revenue of between $1.25Bln and $1.32Bln and associated diluted adjusted EPS of between $3.00 and $3.40.

“As we have said on numerous occasions, we consider ourselves the provider of cryogenic equipment regardless of molecule and we believe that there will be a hybrid of renewable energy sources as the clean energy transition continues,” said Chart.

“Hydrogen will be significant in this transition, and with our 50-plus years of hydrogen equipment experience, we will play a key part in the full hydrogen value chain,” the company added.

Chart Industries, the US LNG equipment maker, has reported mid-second quarter business activities, including new contracts and expenditure and cash flow details at its four divisions.

Chart said that net cash provided by operating activities for continuing operations amounted to $15.5 million and corresponding free cash flow included capital expenditures of $12.6M, driven by strong earnings, cash collections and supplier terms extensions.

The Atlanta-based company, listed on the Nasdaq global exchange, also completed a five-year long-term agreement with a major industrial gas customer for field services and repairs.

Chart said it signed an agreement with Risco Energy Solutions to provide LNG equipment to support the rapidly growing gas-to-power infrastructure in the Asian nation of Indonesia.

“April earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share after adding back severance costs were very strong, as our non-energy related businesses have continued to perform,” stated Jill Evanko, Chart’s President and Chief Executive.

“While the pandemic has altered 2020 for everyone, we are focused on shaping our business to deliver good results in 2020 and position Chart to take advantage of the strong fundamentals of the clean energy transition,” she added.

It also booked orders with 67 new customers in April and May and executed $11.9M of additional cost reductions on May 29, 2020, bringing year-to-date total annualized cost reductions to $60.7M.

“While the current economic situation continues to be challenging for our oil-related product lines, we continue to see demand for our equipment and solutions related to the transition to clean energy infrastructure and our specialty markets,” said Chart.

“With over $60M of cost reductions taken year-to-date, we continue to expect margin expansion throughout 2020 and strong free cash flow for the year, with debt paydown a priority,” it added.

Company free cash flow in April 2020 amounted to $12.6M.

“In the past two months, we have achieved payment term extensions with 311 suppliers with an average payment term extension of 38 days (new payment terms for those suppliers average 89 days)’” stated Chart.

The company second quarter orders through May 29 totaled about $135M, with orders in-house that will be booked in the first days of June totaling an additional $14M.

“In April and May, we received orders from 67 new customers, including 20 in China, where quarter-to-date orders and sales have exceeded our original 2020 plan,” stated the company.

Chart additionally reported demand for oxygen-related critical care products was strong in the month of April and in the first two weeks of May, while activity for traditional industrial gas applications has increased in the second half of May as the hyper-focus on oxygen delivery has subsided to pre-COVID-19 levels.

“We continue to see consistent and strong quoting and order levels for fueling stations, repair and service, small-scale LNG infrastructure and specialty markets, including the receipt of a $2.3M order for a European country’s Armed Forces,” the company revealed.

“We also expect to receive a small-scale terminal order in North America in June 2020,” it added.

In the E&C Cryogenics division, demand for quick turn refurbishment, repair and service-related product and services has increased over the past eight weeks, with orders of $7.2M associated with this type of work.

“Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass big LNG project continues on schedule, and in May, we booked an additional $1M order related to the project,” said the company.

Chart said that areas that softened in the first two months of the second quarter 2020 included HLNG vehicle tanks, beverage tanks, and air-cooled heat exchangers.

“Air cooled heat exchanger orders quarter-to-date total $12.1M while the fans business continues to book and ship consistent with first quarter levels,” said the company.

Chart noted that the support of governments for the transition to clean energy fuels has heightened, with India extending excise duties on diesel, and Germany expected to extend the toll exemption for LNG heavy duty trucks on German highways in early June which will continue to incentivize companies to build infrastructure, including LNG fueling stations and additional over-the-road LNG trucks.

The company has also previously announced a letter of intent from Shell for 7 fueling stations in Germany and in May 2020, received the first purchase order for 2 of the 7 stations plus a surprise four station order that has not yet been booked from another customer.

Chart said that other regions, in particular Southeast Asia, continue to address their need for power infrastructure.

“One such country is Indonesia, and early in the second quarter 2020, we signed an agreement with Risco Energy Solutions, a private investment company, to provide LNG equipment such as Storage Tanks, ISO containers, Trailers, Mobile Equipment, and Fueling Stations, to support the rapidly growing Indonesian gas-to-power infrastructure needs,” it said.
Risco is an active gas infrastructure provider to PT Perta Gas Niaga, a subsidiary of the oil and gas company Pertamina.

“Given the weak demand for air-cooled heat exchangers and the continued optimization of our cost structure, we took further reductions on May 29, 2020,” said Chart.

The total cost reductions taken equaled $11.9M in annualized cost savings, bringing the year-to-date total to $60.7M of annualized cost savings.

“Of the $60.7M, approximately $51M are structural changes that can be maintained at volume levels above $1.6 billion,” the company stated.

Chart Industries, the US supplier of equipment for the industrial gas, energy and liquefied natural gas sectors, reported an almost 24 percent rise in orders to a record $1.41 billion combining LNG fuel, rail, trucking and plant equipment.

Chart Industries, the US liquefied natural gas equipment-maker and supplier to the liquid gas sector, said it would be ramping up manufacturing to meet new LNG project orders on the Gulf Coast and in Asia, while more business is expected in trucking and rail transportation of the fuel.

Chart Industries, the US-based global manufacturer of engineered equipment for the LNG, industrial gas and energy industries reported solid third-quarter results and said it expected more LNG project orders through 2019 as developers moved to its products.

US LNG and gas equipment maker Chart Industries reported a third-quarter sales rise of 18 percent, boosted by demand for small-scale LNG equipment in Asia and other markets.

Chart Industries, the US liquefaction and storage equipment maker, reported a second-quarter drop in net income, though the company sensed an industry turnaround as orders began to increase for US LNG export projects and storage applications in Asia.