ANOTHER 155 workers at two car parts manufacturers lost their jobs last night.

Presswork Metals in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has closed with the loss of about 95 jobs. They join about 200 former colleagues who were made redundant last year.

The company went into administration last October and, since December, had been supplying a single customer.

Joe McLean, from administrator Grant Thornton, praised the staff as the best he had seen in 25 years.

"I have never come across a more resilient workforce," he said.

"They carried on working in extremely difficult circumstances and worked to their very best. It was very humbling to see."

A deal to sell the company as a going concern to an unnamed buyer was arranged in October. But it fell through when two of Presswork's largest customers, accounting for 32 per cent of its business, cancelled their orders.

One hundred workers were immediately made redundant and a further 100 went in December, when most of the remaining orders were completed.

Mr McLean said Presswork had deep-rooted problems, after a management buyout four years ago left it in the red.

"There was too much debt from day one and the company couldn't service that debt," he said.

"It was operating in an excessively tough market and had difficult-to-please customers.

"That lack of viability was really why we could not find a buyer."

Elsewhere, multi-national car components manufacturer Elring Klinger announced 60 jobs would go at its plant in Redcar, east Cleveland.

The redundancies, about a third of the workforce, come as more work is moved abroad.