Dr. Samir J. Serhan
Chief Operating Officer at Air Products and Chemicals
Thank you, Melissa. During our fiscal third quarter, we again saw broad-based improvements across our businesses, extending the positive trend from previous quarters. Results improved in each of our regional segments versus last year, driven by strong price, strong volume, productivity actions, despite the challenging operating conditions around the world. Before I discuss the results of each region, I would like to provide a brief update on our major projects. First, turning to slide 13. You will see that we have enhanced how we present our major projects clarifying the project investment amounts, specifying the long-term nature of the related offtake agreements, and highlighting energy transition projects.
We believe this new format provides a clear overview of key projects in our backlog and provide near-term and long-term visibility. Now please turn to slide 14. I I'm pleased to say that the Jiutai Gasification project is in operation. Our team executed the project in the midst of COVID lockdown and supply chain disruption, including several months of severe lockdowns during the start-up period. We were able to complete this complex project with outstanding safety performance and come in under budget. The team of over 3,300 workers during peak construction completed nearly 13 million hours without a lost time incident.
I would like to thank the team for a job well done. Our team in the Americas has also overcome many challenges to execute the Gulf Coast ammonia project which had nearly 1,300 workers during peak construction and completed over three million hours without a lost time incident. The facility is currently in a start-up, and we expect to begin delivering hydrogen to our pipeline system this month. Finally, following many years of hard work, we announced the $1 billion acquisition of the natural gas-to-syngas plant in Uzbekistan, as part of one of the most advanced energy plans in the world. This acquisition includes the two largest autothermal reformer in the world, in short ATR.
This is the same ATR technology we're deploying in our net zero energy complex in Edmonton, Canada. This will further enhance our industry-leading hydrogen production capabilities, driven by our own partial oxidation technology, in short POX, P-O-X. This is the technology we have acquired from GE several years ago. The POX technology, which we are deploying in our clean energy complex in Louisiana has been a proven main stay for efficient syngas generation for many decades. We will elaborate multiple box units at the Louisiana facility, each of which will be the world's largest. POX and ATR are the two leading processes for the production of blue hydrogen, having the capability and the flexibility to use both leading technology to produce a blue hydrogen at word scale, will further extend our leadership in low carbon hydrogen production.
Now please turn to slide 15 for a review of our Americas segment results. Compared to last year, Americas EBITDA was up 18%, driven by higher price and volume. Merchant price improved 11%, which corresponded to 4% improvement for the region overall. Volume grew 6%, driven by on-site, including strong demand for hydrogen. EBITDA margin jumped more than 1,100 basis points, driven by strong price, lower energy pass-through, which drove about 3/4 of the margin improvement. Sequentially, EBITDA increased 10%, mainly on better hydrogen volume and lower variable costs. Lower energy cost pass-through also drove roughly around 2/3 of the margin improvement.
Now please turn to slide 16 for a review of our Asia segment results. Our results in Asia improved despite the currency headwinds through recovery in China and higher energy costs across the region. Compared to last year, EBITDA was up 10%, despite a 5% negative currency impact. Positive price and volume more than offset higher costs. Merchant price increased 9%, which more than offset higher variable costs. Volume improved 8% primarily to better on site, including the addition of over 30 new assets in the past year. Our activities in the electronics sector were rather robust accounting for many of the new projects.
We also added projects in the chemicals, glass and other applications. Sequentially, volume was up 2% following the Lunar New Year holidays. Please now turn to slide 17 for a review of our Europe segment results. Our team in Europe has worked hard to maintain positive momentum. Compared to last year, EBITDA increased more than 20%, driven by the impact of our pricing actions. Merchant price improved 10%, which equates to a 6% gain for the overall region. This is the second -- 7th consecutive quarter of double-digit merchant price gains for the region. Volume was up modestly on better on site. This is particularly driven by improvement in hydrogen.
This more than offset weaker demand for merchant products. EBITDA margin was about 800 basis points higher and included the impact of lower energy cost pass-through, which benefited margin by around 300 basis points. Sequentially, the region's EBITDA held steady as favorable energy costs offset the lower price. Lower energy cost pass-through also benefited EBITDA margin by about 150 basis points. Now please turn to slide 18 for a review of our Middle East and India segment results. Compared to last year for our merchant volume and the price push sales higher, but increased costs negatively impacted operating income.
The second phase of the Jazan project, which closed in mid-January of this year added to our equity affiliate income, and it drove the region's overall results. The Jazan project has contributed as we expected consistent with our commitment. Please now turn to slide 19 for our Corporate and Other segment results. This segment includes our sale of equipment businesses, as well as our centrally managed function and corporate costs. The sales and profit for this segment were lower this quarter due to lower sale of equipment activities, and higher costs resulting from ongoing support for our growth strategy. We do, however, continue to have robust discussions with customers interested in our LNG technology and equipment.
We're pleased to announce two significant sale of equipment project wins with Qatargas and NextDecade. This is in addition to the two project wins announced in May. We plan to expand our production facility in Florida again and expect increasing LNG project activities to improve the segment results. Echoing what Seifi and Melissa have mentioned earlier, the outstanding results this quarter again showed the resilience of our people and our businesses. I also would like to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of our teams around the world. I would like now to turn the call back to Seifi to provide his closing remarks.
