Credit Crunch

Up the coast, jobs are going at Nissan in Sunderland. At Wilton, Invista is consulting over the closure of its nylon, intermediates and polymers plant, with 300 people's livelihoods on the line.

Dredging the Tees

But on the Tees, a dredger could be seen throughout January, crawling back and forth along a shipping channel. The River Tees was being deepened. Not everything is in decline.

On February 08, the 32,700 tonne aircraft carrier Clemenceau, the biggest of its kind in Europe, arrived on Teesside to be taken apart and recycled.

Clemenceau is towed into the Tees.

The riverbank's old shipyards are getting fresh coats of paint. Inside, men weld joints on giant marine modules that invoke memories of the ships once built with such pride on this river. But it could all be to no avail.

Early in 2009, a newly built hull was supposed to be towed into the Tees, to be turned into a £300m state-of-the-art offshore oil drilling platform. At the last minute, it was announced the parent company, Sea Dragon, had decided instead to send the work to Singapore.

The Tees Alliance Group, who had won the contract for the Tees two years ago, threatened to take legal action, but whatever the outcome, the contract had provided enough investment for the old shipyards to be reopened and refitted. It would be naive to think this was the only oil rig contract the company has been chasing.

Recycling work at Graythorp

While all this goes on on the north bank of the Tees, across the river there is something truly rare happening; massive investment from the retail sector. Next to the giant warehouse built by Asda in 2007, Tesco is putting up a 1.2 million square foot distribution centre.

In its shadow is a plain patch of grass. Once a Shell oil refinery, it has stood empty for two decades. In 2009, engineers will begin preparatory work here.

In 2010, the  builders will start. When finished, it will be one of the biggest container terminals ever constructed in the UK.

In all, these three projects alone are promising around 1,500 jobs on the Tees this year and the companies that own land on the river banks proudly talk about the foreign investors they have been showing around.

Make no mistake though, these are all developments that are happening against the economic tide.

Next to the Riverside Football Stadium, two vessels are berthed, grounded, sitting in cold storage until the economic tide turns enough to make it worth their owners' while to put them to sea. Across the river, Petroplus is considering closing down its oil refinery, with 180 jobs at risk

Some day soon, we may see an oil rig towed into the Tees for fitting, but these are uncertain times. The port expansion should have been starting months earlier, but these are cautious times. The scrap metal from the ship recycling should have been worth far more than it is.

But for all the new industry coming to the Tees, these are tough times.