Member Article

Further threats to Teesside industry

Doubts surround the viability of another major Teesside chemical plant after its parent company held an emergency meeting to discuss its future.

Artenius, which employs 242 people on the Wilton site, is under pressure after parent company La Seda de Barcelona made a £564m loss last year and said it was looking to restructure the business.

Last night, the Wilton site, which makes intermediates for the polyester industry, was the subject of talks in Spain, as the future of its UK Artenius business was put under scrutiny.

The development puts more pressure on the multi-billion pound Teesside chemical sector and the former ICI Wilton site, which has recently been hit by the closures of Dow and Croda.

The fears also came on the day that an Early Day Motion was tabled in the House of Commons by Stockton North MP Frank Cook urging the Government to take steps to safeguard another of Teesside’s threatened chemical plants, the North Tees Petro-plus refinery.

Vera Baird, Redcar MP, said she had met members of Artenius’ management and union representatives on Saturday, and that they all hoped for a positive outcome from the meeting.

“I hope that La Seda will take the sensible decision to resource their plant on Teesside. There are more than 200 jobs at stake and the issues which are causing real worry about the future of the plant are resolvable by La Seda,” she said.

“Our thoughts go out to the workers and families who are being put through this stress when all they want to do is carry on working so productively, and to continue their role as a cog in the Wilton petrochemical cluster.”

Bob Bolam, regional organiser for the Unite union, said: “We seriously hope for a positive outcome from this meeting, and we rely on the will of the parent company to keep this crucial plant open.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .