One of the North East's largest automotive firms is to cut almost 100 jobs as it switches production to another site in the region.
Gestamp, which announced last year that it was shutting its Washington plant and moving production to its site in Newton Aycliffe, is to cut 90 posts on Wearside.
The Spanish company makes chassis components for the likes of Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Ford and employs around 1,200 people in the North East.
It invested £43m in the North East in 2018 to increase production facilities in County Durham.
But the firm cut 59 jobs last year after uncertainty in the automotive market, combined with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, had hit production.
A Gestamp spokesman said: “We can confirm to you that 90 redundancies were announced at Gestamp Washington on January 14.
“ We are reducing our workforce in Washington progressively accordingly to the announced plan to cease the activity in this site due to the end of projects.
“ We are trying to protect as much jobs as possible by moving positions from Washington plant to Aycliffe site. It will depend on future concrete projects and production needs.”
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In accounts for 2019, published at the end of last year, Gestamp highlighted how it had used a pay reduction scheme, and the Government's furlough measures, to protect its financial position during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Turnover for Gestampt Tallent rose to £486.2m, though profitability was hit and the company reported an operating loss of £2.1m.
The accounts showed that the company – which also has a plant in the West Midlands – had a headcount of just over 2,200, a drop of about 140 in the year.
The automotive sector has been through a turbulent period, with Brexit uncertainty and environmental pressures hitting demand even before the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.