Electronics jobs under threat

Last September the firm announced it was taking on more staff

More jobs could be under threat at a Japanese-owned electronics firm in County Londonderry.

AVX, which is based in Coleraine, produces miniature electronic components for mobile phones and computers and employs 1,300 people.

However, it is thought 150 people may be made redundant due to a drop in business.

It comes in the wake of last week's announcement that the company was cutting 95 jobs, and on the back of a host of other redundancies at technology companies in the province.

Unions

On Wednesday, AVX said the global electronics components market continued to experience a significant downturn in business.

In a statement, it said it had entered into further discussions with union representatives advising them of the possibility of further potential redundancies.

"The company continues to explore all options in an effort to reduce costs and protect jobs and is working closely with the union on this basis."

It said the plant had closed for one week in March and would close again for an extended Easter break.

The statement added: "While the company is working hard to gain more orders, the continued negative profile announcements by AVX and customers in the telecommunications and computing sectors continues to give cause for concern."

Those customers include companies such as Motorola and Nortel which has recently made announcements of two lots of redundancies locally.

Last Friday, Valance Technology at Mallusk in County Antrim also announced 150 job losses.

Uel Adair of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union said AVX was doing its best.

"This is a global problem a lot of it is out of AVX's control," he said.

BBC NI business editor James Kerr said: "Right through the technology sector firms are being squeezed by the downturn.

"It seems unlikely that this will be the end of the bad news locally."