Business Roundup

Sasol says low oil prices are forcing it to delay a final decision on its planned gas-to-liquids complex in Lake Charles, La. In October 2014, the company said it would make the final decision on the $14 billion project in two years.

DuPont has formed a joint venture with a ChemChina subsidiary to produce fluoroelastomer gums and precompounds in China. To be called DuPont Haohua Chenguang Fluoromaterials, the venture plans to build a plant in Shanghai to serve automotive, aerospace, and energy customers.

Toray Industries will increase its annual capacity for low-melt polyester staple fiber at its plant in Gumi, South Korea, by 70% to 170,000 metric tons. The firm will also increase capacity at the site for bicomponent fibers made with polyethylene and either polyester or polypropylene.

Novamont, an Italian biochemicals maker, has signed an agreement with Coldiretti, an Italian farming cooperative. Coldiretti will grow a plant called cardoon, and Novamont will use it as a feedstock for bioplastics and short-chain biolubricants.

Sumitomo Chemical and LG Display have licensed technology from New Jersey-based Universal Display for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) products. Sumitomo’s license covers the manufacture of solution-processed polymer OLED lighting panels. LG’s license covers OLED displays.

Solvay plans to build a new facility in Linne-Herten, the Netherlands, to produce hydrogen peroxide grades used by the pharmaceutical industry for disinfection and decontamination. The plant is set to be completed in July 2015.

A Department of Energy grant of $350,000 will be used by the University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management and Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories to commercialize lab technologies through a new program called Lab-Corps. Along with the Livermore-based i-GATE Innovation Hub, the partners will help national lab scientists become entrepreneurs and move their technologies into the market.

FDA has banned drug ingredients made at an Ipca Laboratories plant in Ratlam, India, from the U.S. market. Last July, the company had voluntarily suspended shipments from the plant to the U.S. after an FDA inspection uncovered poor manufacturing practices.