More job losses at chemical plant

The Artenius plant in Redcar is being mothballed

A fresh wave of redundancies has been made at a chemical plant on Teesside.

Fifty-eight workers at Artenius UK, based in Redcar, were told they had lost their jobs at a meeting with administrator Deloitte on Friday.

The company announced 137 redundancies at the Wilton site when it went into administration at the end of July.

La Seda, the UK firm's Spanish parent group, has previously said three parties are interested in buying the plant, with one close to making a deal.

A Deloitte spokeswoman said the decision to make further redundancies was made following an earlier announcement that the production facility was to be mothballed.

The plant, which manufactured a chemical used in the food and drink packaging industry, had a workforce of almost 250-strong before it went into administration.

Redcar MP Vera Baird joined 10 workers and union representatives to lobby the La Seda shareholders' meeting in Barcelona earlier this month.