Car parts manufacturer Gestamp Tallent has confirmed plans to make job losses at one of its North East sites.
Gestamp Tallent is a major employer within the region, with a workforce of around 1,300 spread across sites in Newton Aycliffe and Washington.
Now the Madrid-headquartered group has confirmed consultations have started on plans to make 59 redundancies at the County Durham base, on Aycliffe Business Park, following a drop in demand for its products during the coronavirus pandemic.
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A spokesman for Gestamp Tallent said: “Yesterday we have taken the difficult step to commence consultations at our site in Newton Aycliffe regarding the need to consider making 59 redundancies.
“This proposal is unfortunately in response to a reduction in demand for our products partially due to the impact of COVID-19.
“Our aim is to protect as much of our workforce and skill base as possible to ensure our business is fit and ready for the recovery in the automotive sector when it comes.
“During this consultation period, we will consider alternatives and to this aim, we shall be working closely with our Employee Representatives.”
The manufacturing business makes chassis components for the likes of Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Ford and had grown significantly ahead of the break from the EU, investing £43m into the firm in 2018.
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Its most recent accounts, which cover 2018, showed how its performance was being affected by Brexit uncertainty, posting a 5.6% fall in turnover.
Now the group, which says the auto market was already in a complicated situation with declining production levels, is dealing with the unprecedented effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In its quarterly results published in May, Gestamp Tallent said it was outperforming the market as a result of new projects and lower exposure to Asia, where market uncertainties have led to significant production volume declines.
Pre tax profits more than halved to €43m from €110m in the same period in 2019, while revenues dropped by 7.3% to €2.01bn.
A number of other North East firms in the automotive sector - including Nissan, Envision AESC and ADM Pressings - have announced job losses in the last few weeks.