Seventy workers are to lose their jobs on New Year's Eve when a plastics factory closes on Teesside.

American chemical firm DuPontSA blamed pressure from Asia for its decision to shut its polyester resin plant at the end of the year.

Bosses decided production at the Wilton site, which supplies raw material for soft drinks containers, was no longer viable.

DuPont has invested £92m in the site in the past six years.

Spokesman Chris Nicholson said the 30-year-old facility could no longer compete with producers in China because it was too small and uneconomical.

He blamed the poor summer weather for a downturn in the soft drinks industry.

"We have not had a good summer so people do not buy as much pop as they do when it is hot and that has an impact on our business as well.

"We did look at ways to try to keep it running but we came to the conclusion that we would have to close at the end of the year."

Workers were involved in a 30-day consultation period in an effort to save the plant.

Mr Nicholson said: "The workers have taken the news better than they might have done, because it was expected."

There may be a short-term reprieve for up to 18 workers if they can diversify and work in other sections of the plant to meet customer demands in the first few months of next year.

But it still means that DuPontSA wil lose a fifth of its Middlesbrough workforce.

The site to be closed is the smaller of the firm's polyethylene terephthalate production assets.