NORTHERNBUSINESS: Up to 30 people will lose their jobs at the DuPont textiles plant in Maydown, Derry, after the company's US parent sought 2,000 redundancies from its global operations.

The human resources manager at the plant, Mr Stewart Pollard, said the company wanted staff to leave voluntarily.

It needed to reduce its professional and managerial staff by 15 and cut 15 shop floor jobs. The cuts were sought as DuPont disclosed plans to reduce its 20,000 workforce in the textiles and interiors division by 10 per cent.

The group said the cuts were necessary to match resources with "current market realities".

It wants to save $120 million (€133 million) through the job cut programme.

The textiles operation will be separated from DuPont's other businesses in the food, healthcare, electronics and transport divisions by the end of 2003. Options under consideration include an initial public offering.

The site manager at the Derry plant, Mr Pat Carroll, said: "There are no plans to reduce production capacity at Maydown. However, there is no doubting the fact that our business has undergone significant changes in recent times."

Citing weakness in the global economy and a shift in the market growth to Asia, he added: "We must continue to seek opportunities to improve competitive position. By reorganising workload consistent with future business needs, we anticipate a reduction ... of around 5 per cent of our workforce."

Mr Pollard said the positions of several hundred contract staff at Maydown were not threatened.

"The company produces three materials: Lycra, elastne fibre and Kevlar, a high-strengh industrial fibre.