Business Roundup

Air Liquide has commissioned a number of new units in the Middle East. In Oman, the company has started up a nitrogen unit at an Oman Refineries & Petrochemicals refinery. In Egypt, it has installed an oxygen unit near Alexandria to supply the EZZ steel mill and has constructed a 140-metric-ton-per-day air separation unit near Cairo to serve local markets.

Sasol has been caught up in the labor unrest sweeping South Africa. The energy and chemical maker says that strikes have affected some Sasol Wax, Sasol Nitro—which makes ammonia, explosives, and fertilizers—and Sasol Gas units. The company notes that "the strike has been peaceful so far and there have been no incidents of intimidation or victimization."

LyondellBasell Industries has named Kent Potter chief financial officer. He will succeed Alan Bigman, who will assist the company through its bankruptcy process. Potter was previously CFO at Russian oil firm TNK-BP. He had also been chief financial officer at Chevron Phillips Chemical, where he served under then-CEO, now LyondellBasell CEO, James Gallogly.

LG Chem will invest $967 million to build a plant to make glass for liquid-crystal displays. The plant, scheduled to come on-line in 2012, will be located at Paju, South Korea.

Afton Chemical has signed a contract manufacturing agreement with Singapore-based Chemical Specialties. CSI will manufacture petroleum additives at its facility on Jurong Island for distribution to Afton's Asian customers.

DuPont Teijin Films will close its Florence, S.C., polyethylene terephthalate films plant, which employs 210 workers, at the end of 2010. The firm will consolidate production at its Hopewell, Va., facility.

Georgia Gulf has exchanged $736 million worth of its creditors' bonds in exchange for preferred and common shares of its stock. In connection with the plan, meant as a way for the embattled polyvinyl chloride maker to stay afloat, Georgia Gulf plans a one-for-25 reverse stock split.

Raptor Pharmaceuticals and TorreyPines Therapeutics, two California-based biopharmaceutical firms, will combine operations and likely keep the Raptor name and headquarters in Novato. Through an exchange of stock, Raptor's shareholders will own 95% of the combined firm and TorreyPines' just 5%. In May, TorreyPines' board agreed to liquidate the company unless a better offer arose.