DOUBTS surrounded the viability of another major Teesside chemical plant last night after its debt-ridden 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 hastily-convened 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 was rocked two weeks ago by the closures of Dow and Croda, resulting in a combined loss of nearly 200 jobs, and sparking fears of other plants succumbing to the economic downturn in a “house of cards” effect.

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 Petroplus refinery. The Northern Echo understands the Artenius plant has not been fully operational since January, and that the remaining operational part of the site is heavily reliant on output from the Dow plant, the UK’s only supplier of the crucial ethylene oxide chemical.

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 last night’s 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.”

Meanwhile, doubts continue to exist over the future of Petroplus, which put all of its 150 workers on formal consultation over redundancy last month after its Swiss owners failed to find a buyer for the refinery. If it is not sold, it could be converted into a terminal or storage facility.

Mr Cook said that alongside the fight to keep the Corus Teesside Cast Products plant open, and protect the jobs of its 3,000 workers, the Government must also do all it can to safeguard the chemical sector.

“Quite rightly there is major concern, and very active lobbying, over the threat to our steel industry. I believe that the potential loss of our oil refining capacity would strike at the very heart of other key industries and the seriousness of the situation must be recognised by Government,” he said.