US chemicals firm DuPont has revealed that jobs at one of its North-East sites will be affected by a cost-cutting drive.

The company, which has operations in Darlington and on Teesside, announced on Monday that it was shedding 3,500 jobs across the world.

And bosses confirmed yesterday that "a few" workers out of 100 at the powder coatings site on Darlington's Whessoe Road would be hit.

DuPont's public affairs manager Tony Jordan said: "Teesside will not be affected by this announcement, but there will be a few jobs affected in Darlington.

"They won't necessarily be redundancies, there may be early retirements and things like that. We also have the opportunity to re-deploy people."

DuPont said about 70 per cent of the job losses would come in North America, with a significant amount also being cut in Europe, including 150 workers at its UK sites.

As well as Darlington, the firm has plants in Dagenham, east London, and Hemel Hempstead and Stevenage, both in Hertfordshire.

DuPont operates in more than 70 countries, with a workforce totalling 20,000.

It makes materials used in clothing, health care, construction and electronics.

The £490m cost-cutting plan was announced in December, but the huge cutting of jobs exceeds even the 2,500 losses predicted by union bosses.

During the next year, about 3,000 jobs will be lost through redundancies while 500 will be achieved through normal attrition. In addition, 450 contractor positions will go.