We have recently encountered a surge in questions requesting clarity on the process and ownership transfer of industrial (High Pressure – HP) cylinders.
Industrial gas (high pressure – hp) cylinders are completely different to LPG cylinders as they do not attract a deposit, they in turn attract a monthly cylinder rental.
Said rental is charged to the customer on or about the 15th of the month and will accrue a charge (various values depending on the cylinder) and is payable in accordance with the customers credit terms with ourselves.
It is extremely important to understand that as soon as the customer accepts delivery of said industrial cylinder that the cylinder becomes the customers responsibility, it is critical that the customer ensures that they balance up the qty of cylinders charged on their monthly rental invoice to the physical quantity on hand and to please contact our office in order to resolve any suspected imbalance.
The cylinders are currently valued at R 4 516.00 ex vat (and R5660.00 ex VAT for Acetylene cylinders), if lost/misplaced the customer will be invoiced for the replacement value before their next rental run.
For the sake of convenience, I refer to clauses 2 to 4 of our terms and conditions on our invoices which are signed at the time of receiving said cylinder by anyone representing the Customer.
- The risk in the Industrial gas shall pass to the customer upon delivery of the cylinder/s
- Should the customer dispute the correctness of the number of cylinders in its possession as reflected in the rental invoice, it shall report/dispute the discrepancy to Gas Centre in writing within 5 days of the date of the rental invoice, failing which the numbers as Gas Centre reflect in the invoice shall constitute prima facia proof of the correctness of the number of cylinders in the customers possession.
- The customer shall pay Gas Centre the current replacement cost as specified by Air products for any cylinder and equipment lost or destroyed while in the customers possession or control. Any cylinder and equipment not made available for collection within 3 months of its delivery/collection shall be treated as lost unless the Customer can prove otherwise.
Further to the above please take note that to assist all our customers we have recently launched a monthly verification analysis form, this form (attached for ease of reference) is emailed to the Customer on a monthly basis and the customer is requested to please complete said document reflecting the qty of cylinders they physically have on hand and to rerun said document to the email provided.
In closing it also important to note that the cylinder belongs to Air Products and is never available for sale under any circumstance, visual confirmation of this can be made by purely looking at the cylinder and reading the respective engraved comments on said cylinder, photo of a cylinder attached for ease of reference.