Teesside firms on red alert

May 14 2008 Evening Gazette

LOCAL firms were desperately seeking news of employees and suppliers in China yesterday as the full horror of Monday’s quake reached Teesside.

Hartlepool-based Stadium Group, which employs 200 staff at a factory in Chang Ping City in Guangdong, including many migrant workers from Sichuan province, the region that suffered the full force of the tremor, made contact soon after the disaster.

“Thankfully, they have all been able to contact their families and none are involved,” said managing director Nigel Rogers.

“Although the numbers of people involved is horrific, it is a huge province.”

He said China’s industrial belt - where the majority of British business interests were concentrated - was safe.

Darchem Engineering at Stillington, which supplies China’s booming aerospace industry, dealing with several companies across the country, said Beijing appeared to be operating as normal.

Dr Zhengming Yang, UK Trade and Investment’s special adviser to the North-east on China, said a trade mission planned for the end of May to Chengdu and Wuhan would go ahead as planned, but he was still trying to contact the authorities in Sichwuan province, which had offered to host a mission in November.

“The earthquake centre is not one associated with heavy industry,” he said. “We have not been able to make contact with anyone in the target area”.

He said there had been no significant interruption to trade so fars. Rail and air terminals were still open.

Overall sales to China for the North East topped £200m last year, putting China 11th for exports from the Tees Valley.