Cement factory jobs under threat

Castle Cement has been hit by the downturn in house construction

A north Wales cement company is looking at cutting its workforce after seeing a 20% drop in demand for its services.

Castle Cement in Padeswood, Flintshire, has seen demand tail off over the past year and blames the credit crunch.

The company, which employs 250 people, says those working in its distribution department are likely to be affected.

It said it could not put a figure on the number of redundancies at present but said it was currently reviewing its distribution fleet operations.

The company pointed out that as the construction and house building industries had slowed down this had resulted in a lack of demand for cement.

As the kilns at the Padeswood plant run 24 hours a day, the company has to match its production with the current demand.

There is a drastic economic downturn and we are feeling the pain as much as any other business Castle Cement spokesman

However, as production had fallen by 20% this has consequently meant that the same proportion of its delivery lorries were off the road doing nothing.

As a result, the jobs of distribution workers and other allied functions at the factory have been put at risk.

A company spokesman said: "There is a drastic economic downturn, which is affecting everyone, and we are feeling the pain as much as any other business.

"New building work is not being started and house building is at its lowest since the Second World War, and we are certainly victims of the credit crunch.

"Fortunately, we have not had to resort to closing kilns at Padeswood, but we are having to review our distribution fleet."