More than 100 jobs at an engineering works in Northern Ireland were under threat tonight - latest victims of low cost Asian competition..
Workers at John Crane UK in Ballymena, Co Antrim, were given the news before they finished work for the day.
The company, part of the Smiths Group, employs 117 people in Ballymena making coupling, seals and drill bits.
Chris Fox of the Smiths Group said only the drill bit division and its 10 workers was safe from the axe.
However, the company was planning to expand the division and there should be job opportunities for some of the workers under threat to transfer jobs, he added.
He said there would be a 90-day consultation period with the workforce.
"There will be no job losses before the New Year, even then it will be a gradual run down over a two-year period."
The company, he said was "looking for the least worst option" and were looking for voluntary redundancies rather than compulsory ones.
Mr Fox blamed the decision on "the tremendous competition pressure from overseas markets in Asia."
He said that it is not a problem "peculiar to Ballymena".
"John Crane had to close three plants in Berkshire in 2001 and another in Manchester in 2002."
Ballymena Democratic Unionist Party Mayor, Tommy Nichol, who is an employee of John Crane, said workers were shocked by the announcement.
"Half an hour before we were going home management gave letters to the shop stewards to give to every employee.
"It basically said the manufacture of seals and couplings in Ballymena would cease. It hasn't really sunk in yet," he said.
Sean Farren, the SDLP Assembly member for North Antrim said it was "a cruel blow" for the Ballymena area.
He added: "It is vital that measures are put in place quickly to help those affected by this latest set of redundancies so that they can find alternative employment."