Liberty House's British company Liberty Powder Metals has received a ￡ 4.6 million investment that will be used to develop and manufacture special alloy metal powders for 3D printed automotive parts.
The total cost of the scheme is ￡ 9.83 million, of which nearly ￡ 4 million comes from the Liberty and CASCADE projects, a research and development programme funded by the British government and led by Liberty.
The project will be established at the South Shore Materials Processing Institute to enable Liberty to gain access to scientific expertise provided by non-profit institutions to develop new materials, processes and technologies.
Liberty expects the specialty alloy metal powder market to grow rapidly and hopes to use Tees Valley's facilities to gain a place in the international market.
Mayor Houchen chaired a cabinet meeting and said: "Keeping a leading position in new technologies such as specialty metal powders and the 3D printing products they use can create a whole new industry cluster and create many jobs for local workers."
"It just shows that if we continue to support our creators, innovators, entrepreneurs and risk takers, private investment will pour into our region to develop future industries like this."
"This is an investment in the metals industry of the future, which proves that the industry's prospects in Tees Valley are still good. It not only brings today the high-skilled jobs," said Sue Jeffrey, a leader of the Redcar and Cleveland councils and a cabinet member of the Tees Valley Joint Authority. The promise also brings many ready-made high-skilled laborers and young people who are currently educated and trained, and hope to get employment opportunities locally. "