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| Company closures to cost 400 jobs | |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Up to 210 jobs are to be lost with the closure of the Hughes Christensen drill bit factory in east Belfast. | |
| In a statement the firm's parent company, Baker Hughes, said its operations would be transferred to its base in Texas. | In a statement the firm's parent company, Baker Hughes, said its operations would be transferred to its base in Texas. |
| Meanwhile, the Unite union claims 200 jobs will be lost with the closure of the Nortel telecoms company in Newtownabbey. | |
| It said 140 jobs would go in NI with another 60 lost by suppliers. | |
| Nortel has refused to comment. | |
| The Hughes Christensen factory at Castlereagh has been in operation for 55 years making drill bits for the oil and gas industry. | |
| The company made 135 people redundant last year, blaming a decline in the world market for drill bits. | |
| "We had hoped that the redundancies we made during 2009 would allow us to continue bit manufacturing at the Woodlands, Texas, and here in Belfast," the company said. | "We had hoped that the redundancies we made during 2009 would allow us to continue bit manufacturing at the Woodlands, Texas, and here in Belfast," the company said. |
| "However, we have determined, in the face of expectations for significantly weaker demand for Tricone bits, that we can only support a single facility to make these bits." | "However, we have determined, in the face of expectations for significantly weaker demand for Tricone bits, that we can only support a single facility to make these bits." |