INDUSTRIAL gases group BOC is cutting about 1,500 jobs worldwide in a bid to fuel higher growth across the business.

BOC, which has operations at Teesport, employing 90 staff, and Chester-le-Street in County Durham, hopes to save as much as £55m a year through the restructuring plan, which is the result of a six-month review.

The group, which employs about 11,000 people in the UK, said it was still too early to say where the jobs axe would fall.

A spokesman for the company said: "We expect to cut about 200 jobs in the UK. We have to consult our workforce and the unions on these job losses.

"It is too early to say if jobs in the North-East will be affected."

However, the majority of the cuts are expected to be at BOC Edwards's sites in Crawley, Burgess Hill and Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex.

BOC was already in consultation with those employees affected by the restructuring plans.

The company has been hit by a marked downturn in demand for gases and vacuums from the high-tech semiconductor industry.

In the third quarter of the year, operating profits at its BOC Edwards arm fell by 25 per cent as orders from semiconductor manufacturers dried up.

The job cuts will be spread across BOC Edwards and the group's Industrial and Special Products and its Process Gas Solutions businesses.

For the first nine months of the year, BOC's pre-tax profits were up 11 per cent on last year at £363.2m.

Chief executive Tony Isaac said the results showed "positive trends" in most parts of the business.

"The downturn in the worldwide semiconductor industry had the expected impact on the performance of BOC Edwards but, excluding this, the operating profit of the remainder of the business was up 11 per cent in the third quarter."

The Transport and General Workers' Union said it was ironic that productivity gains by the workers would now lead to job losses.

Jim Mowatt, the union's chief negotiator for the gas industry, said: "I am determined that after the efforts of the workers to deliver productivity targets, no one should have to walk the plank and lose their dignity."