CAR PARTS manufacturer NSK has confirmed that it plans to close its County Durham steering column plant.

As revealed exclusively in The Northern Echo yesterday, the plant, in Palmer Road, Peterlee, east Durham, will be closed in the early part of next year.

The closure will lead to at least 16 initial job losses in non-production areas, but the company said it was still too early to say how many redundancies would be made in total, from the 170-strong workforce.

A statement from NSK said: "It is hoped that large-scale redundancies can be avoided. Workers will, wherever possible, be offered new employment opportunities at the neighbouring Epas plant.

"Discussions and consultations will be held with employees and their representatives on every aspect of the rationalisation plan."

The Epas power steering plant, in Davy Drive, Peterlee, employs about 80 staff and has spare capacity.

This will be filled by the transfer of staff from the Palmer Road operation, along with necessary machinery.

The closure of the steering column plant will begin in March, and is expected to be completed by July.

The Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union, which represents workers at the plant, reacted with anger to the closure decision.

A spokesman for the union said: "This comes on the back of other major job losses in the engineering sector since the events of September 11.

"Torringtons, Cummins and Huntsman have all announced redundancies or closures, and now it seems that NSK is doing the same.

"It seems that the events of September 11 in the US are giving companies an excuse to offload staff and rationalise their operations.

"It is suppliers like NSK that are really feeling the pinch, and I can't see it getting any better in the short-term."

The losses at NSK Steering Systems Europe come after a lengthy review of the Japanese company's European operations.

It plans to set up a global steering business encompassing operations in Asia, the US and Europe, with the objective being to optimise use of shared resources for research, development, technology and marketing.

NSK's problems are being compounded by car manufacturers such as Nissan getting more of their parts from mainland Europe, amid increasing calls for the UK to join the Euro currency.

The losses at NSK's column plant come just days after the company's bearing operation in Peterlee announced plans to create 52 jobs as part of an £11.1m expansion.

l Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive of Nissan, has been named Autocar magazine's Man of the Year for this year.

The magazine's panel of international judges conferred the title of Mr Ghosn because of his record of achievements at Nissan since he joined the company, in June 1999