Air Products (APD) To Discuss New Technology At POWDERMET

Air Products (NYSE:APD) will be discussing its new technology for continuous dew point monitoring of sintering atmospheres at POWDERMET 2017 – the International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials – on Jun 15 in Las Vegas.

Apart from complying with industry quality standards, the company's continuous dew point monitoring system helps manufacturers to plan for shutdowns and preventative maintenance of their furnaces.

To achieve the desired delubrication and consistency of the sintered products an appropriate atmospheric composition in the various zones of a sintering furnace is required. However, this can be challenging as particulates and contaminants in the sample gas stream can accumulate in filtering systems and on sensors.

Air Products' new technology helps to address these issues by incorporating design features, such as an automated self-cleaning and sensor calibration process, along with temperature control of the sensor and sampling system. This helps in maintaining the accurate consistency of measured dew point level.

Additionally, the system reports drifts and changes in dew point locally through monitoring and alarms or remotely through cloud server access, enabling furnace operators to address issues quickly and efficiently.

According to the customers, this system enables uninterrupted use, without the need for calibration or maintenance of sensors. This also provides customers with alerts on process drifts and maintenance needs.

Air Products has outperformed the Zacks categorized Chemicals-Diversified industry over the past three months. The company’s shares have moved up around 3.6% over this period compared with roughly 2.2% growth recorded by the industry.

Air Products is well placed to leverage the cyclical recovery in core industrial end-markets. The company has built a strong project backlog. These projects are expected to be accretive to earnings and cash flow over the next few years. Acquisitions and new business wins are expected to continue to drive results. The company is also progressing well with its $600 million cost-cutting program.

Air Products also has significant amount of cash to invest in its core industrial gases business. The company expects to have roughly $8 billion to deploy in strategic, high-return opportunities to create shareholders value over the next three years.

However, the company’s industrial gases business in the EMEA region is seeing pressure from a weak operating environment. The company is also seeing lower volumes in Latin America due to weak demand. Moreover, volumes in packaged gases continue to be weak while LNG sales remain under pressure due to low project activity. The company is also exposed to currency headwinds.

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Price and Consensus

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Price and Consensus | Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Quote

Air Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked companies in the chemical space include BASF SE (OTC:BASFY) , The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC) and Kronos Worldwide Inc (NYSE:KRO) . All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

BASF has expected long-term growth of 8.9%.

Chemours has expected long-term growth of 15.5%.

Kronos has expected long-term growth of 5%.

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