Car parts firm to cut 564 UK jobs

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Engineering group GKN has confirmed that it is cutting 564 jobs in the UK.

The company said the cuts will be made at its plants in Birmingham, Walsall and Telford, and at its aerospace division sites in Burnley and Luton.

GKN supplies carmakers including Ford. The losses are part of a restructuring package, announced in January.

At the time GKN said it had cut 2,800 jobs globally since October and may have to shed more because of the slump in the global car industry.

GKN's forge facility at Hamstead near Birmingham will close by the end of the year and its car parts facility in Walsall will close by the middle of 2010, with the loss of 323 jobs.

Another 150 will go at its Telford plant because of the "dramatic and sustained reduction in customer orders", GKN said.

Among the other 91 jobs being cut, 56 posts are being lost as a result of the closure of its aerospace services site in Burnley, and 35 are going in Luton.

A spokesman for GKN said: "There are no further redundancies planned in the UK, subject to market conditions not deteriorating any further."

GKN, which has its UK headquarters in Redditch, Worcestershire, employs 42,000 people worldwide.

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