THE expansion of Teesport is essential to the future of the region's chemical industry and more than 34,000 jobs, a business leader said last night.

Stan Higgins, chief executive of the North-East Process Industry Cluster (Nepic), warned that the fortunes of the region's chemical industry, which makes up a quarter of the region's economic output, were closely tied to those of the port.

Teesport owner PD Ports is campaigning for the Government to delay any further expansion of Southern ports and allow a £300m development on the Tees to go ahead, creating up to 7,000 jobs.

The fate of Teesport lies in the hands of the Department for Transport, as it decides whether to allow expansion of ports in Suffolk.

If the Southern ports are permitted to expand, Teesport will have to shelve its investment plans because they will not be viable.

But Mr Higgins said the region's chemical industry was totally dependant on Teesport and would not be able to grow if the port did not expand.

He said: "Teesport is an absolutely critical logistics hub for the whole of the process industry, which in turn makes up 25 per cent of the whole North-East economy, and about 20 per cent of manufacturing jobs.

"The whole industry is extremely important to the economy, and the industry is also reliant on the port to move large amounts of materials. The port does need to become more versatile. It is an economy of scale - the bigger the port is, the better it is, and the bigger and better our industry gets, and the more effective everything gets.

"If we want to grow and mature the process industries in the region, the port has to be grown and matured alongside it.

"We are fully behind Teesport's plans, because they are absolutely essential for the region's economy."

He said Europe was an important market for the process industry, and the port was essential for getting materials there, rather than clogging up British motorways moving them by lorry.

Mr Higgins said he would be lobbying MPs and helping Nepic members to realise how important the port is.

Nepic is an organisation of 200 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, speciality, commodity and petrochemical companies and the 150 companies in the supply chain.

Nepic members have a combined economic output of £8bn and employ 34,000 people directly, with an impact on the income of a further 200,000 people in the North-East.