RECEIVERS at shipyard operator Cammell Laird are close to completing the sale of its overseas operations.

But they fear that the UK yards, including those on the Tyne and the Tees, could close unless new work or buyers are found in the next few months.

The Tyneside operations, which employ about 800 people, have up to three months' work, but on Teesside, work in progress is expected to be completed this week.

Cammell Laird receivers, PricewaterhouseCooper, expects to complete the sale of the group's operations in Gibraltar to a management buy-out team this week.

It is also close to selling Cammell's 49 per cent stake in its operations in Oregon in the US to majority shareholder Cascade General.

PwC receiver Ian Stokoe said it was increasingly likely that the UK operations will be sold to more than one buyer.

He said: "While there is still work in the yards we have a good opportunity to sell the businesses, but once that work runs out, the job of finding a buyer will become more difficult."

There are believed to be at least eight parties interested in the UK yards, including Tyne-based Swan Hunter, which is believed to be interested in Cammell's yard at Hebburn on the Tyne.

However, Swans is also close to buying the Port Clarence Dock on Teesside, owned by Anglo-Norwegian group Kvaerner.

Contracts are close to being exchanged, and Jaap Kroese, the Dutch owner and chairman of Swan Hunter, said: "There is no going back now."

If the deal with Kvaerner is completed, the company is likely to pull out of the bidding for the Cammell Laird yards.

Other interested parties are believed to include Alchemy, the venture capital group that tried to buy Rover, and UK shipbuilding group A&P Holdings, which has operations on the Tyne.