Syensqo, Orbia delay battery plants

In response to decelerating electric car sales, a joint venture between Syensqo and Orbia has delayed construction of a plant that will produce polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a binder used to make batteries, by up to 2 years. In April, Syensqo and Orbia broke ground on the PVDF plant, which was initially slated to open in 2026. In a May earnings call, Syensqo CEO Ilham Kadri told investors that the company was moving forward with the project, even though firms including BASF, Umicore, and Northvolt had already decided to slow investment in battery materials. A facility that Orbia is building in Louisiana to produce lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF 6 ), an electrolyte salt for batteries, will also open later than originally planned. The plant was scheduled to start up in 2026, but Orbia expects the project to be completed after the PVDF plant. The Department of Energy has offered hundreds of millions