CONCERN was growing for the chemicals industry on Teesside last night following a number of negative reports from US corporations.

They have increased fears that foreign companies are preparing to close down their UK operations.

Eastman Chemical Company last night announced it had launched a review of its copolyester division in the face of fierce competition and over-production.

The firm has headquarters in Kingsport, Tennessee, where it has one of its three copolyester plants. Another is in Hartlepool and a third in Malaysia.

On Monday, a 30-day redundancy consultation will be launched in Hartlepool, where 80 people are employed.

Jim Rogers, Eastman executive vice-president, said: "As we move toward becoming an even stronger supplier to the global copolyester market, we are taking steps to create the most competitive manufacturing position possible for our products."

Eastman plans to work with the GMB union to assess the long-term future of the plant.

Jackie Woodall, of the GMB, said: "I have a meeting with the company on Monday morning to see if we can find ways of avoiding the redundancies the company is currently proposing."

It is the latest blow to the industry in the past few weeks, following the announcement by Huntsman that job losses could not be ruled out at its Wilton site.

The US-owned firm said it must cut £120m from its global budget. Union officials representing the 1,800-strong Wilton workforce have threatened to strike.

Last month, another chemicals firm, Great Lakes Corporation, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, closed after its US owner decided it was not as competitive as its Arkansas sister plant.

The concern for the North-East is that there are more than 150 companies in the speciality chemicals sector producing £4.5bn of the UK's GDP in this region. The firms employ about 14,000 people and impact on the jobs of about 70,000 others.

Professor John Wilson, director of Teesside Business School, said: "It is unlikely that these actions are all coincidental.

"This is partly reflecting developments globally within that industry but it also reflects the fact that maybe in terms of labour costs, the UK is not as competitive as other parts of the world."

But Ian Click, chief executive of the Teesside Chemicals Initiative, said he had seen no indication that there was a wider threat to chemical production in the region.

He said: "There is no doubt it is a very competitive situation indeed. Companies, naturally, keep looking at the situation overall.

"Huntsman is trying to put itself in a position where it is competitive and profitable on Teesside."