Plant and Equipment, net

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosure [Text Block]

9.  PLANT AND EQUIPMENT, NET

The major classes of plant and equipment are as follows:

		Useful Life
30 September		in years		2016		2015
Land			$	232.9	$	226.2
Buildings		30		1,119.8		1,080.2
Production facilities
	Industrial Gases – Regional(A)	10 to 20		12,372.1		11,873.8
	Materials Technologies	10 to 15		859.2		902.7
	Other	5 to 20		36.0		43.0
	Total production facilities			13,267.3		12,819.5
Distribution and other machinery and equipment(B)		5 to 25		4,042.1		3,963.1
Construction in progress				1,528.0		1,373.8
Plant and equipment, at cost				20,190.1		19,462.8
Less: accumulated depreciation				11,337.4		10,717.7
Plant and equipment, net			$	8,852.7	$	8,745.1
(A)	Depreciable lives of production facilities related to long-term customer supply contracts are matched to the contract lives.
(B)	The depreciable lives for various types of distribution equipment are 10 to 25 years for cylinders, depending on the nature and properties of the
	product; 20 years for tanks; 7.5 years for customer stations; and 5 to 15 years for tractors and trailers.

Depreciation expense was $893.0, $900.4, and $914.8 in 2016, 2015, and 2014, respectively.