ENGINEERING and project management firm K Home International is creating up to 20 jobs at its Teesside base as it waits for news on a major new contract.

The company, which has a branch office in Dubai where it specialises in project managing major new developments, is recruiting engineers and designers at its Thornaby base.

K Home, which won a Queen's Award for export last year, also works on overseas oil and gas contracts.

Director Andrew Home said: "There is some requirement to recruit at the moment, but it's a bit difficult to tell exactly how many.

"We need between ten and 20 to work in the head office in Thornaby at the moment.

"But there are also a couple of jobs we are chasing in Dubai which we are waiting to hear about and then we could be recruiting a big team to work in the Middle East, but we don't know how many yet."

K Home is expected to find out by the end of this month if it has won a contract to work on the Economic City in Dubai.

It is also working on a £15m contract to design and build a major polymer plant in the North-West for Japanese company Asahi.

The groundbreaking ceremony on the Blackpool plant took place this week and represents Asahi's biggest biggest investment outside of Japan since it acquired the fluorinated resin business in Europe and the US, from ICI, in 1999.