NEARLY 70 jobs have been axed in another blow to the North-East's ailing manufacturing industry.

Warner Electric said yesterday it would be closing its plant at St Helen Auckland, in County Durham, by the end of September and shifting production to sites in France and China.

About 65 of the 70 workers at the firm, which has manufactured industrial brakes and clutches at the site since the 1940s, are to go, with discussions planned over the remaining staff.

The announcement came after consultation to review the plant's viability.

The firm, which is a US-owned subsidiary of the Colfax Power Transmission Group, blamed the closure on pressure of costs from Asia.

Dave Smith, the plant's manager, said: "There's likely to be around 65 casualties. Unfortunately, we are living in a climate where it is not an uncommon occurrence. Our job is to try and make it as painless as we possibly can."

But the plant closure could have knock-on effects for technology company Mechetronics, also in St Helen Auckland, which rents about 10,000 sq metres of manufacturing space from Warner Electric.

Mechetronics has recently made six personnel staff and 15 shop floor workers redundant.

The recent job losses at the company, which serves an international market making solenoids for vending and cashpoint machines and applications including airbrakes, brings the workforce below 100.

Jim Summerbell, technical director of Mechetronics, said the company could not determine how the Warner Electric closure would affect it until Warner's US parent company had made a decision on what to do with the site.

He said business was still "very fragile", particularly with the Iraq conflict, but that a recent lucrative contract it had won to supply Hewlett Packard had lent the company a "robustness".

Derek Foster, Bishop Auckland MP, said he was in discussions with employment services to ensure the redundant workers had help.

He said: "It is a continuing blow for the manufacturing industry in the North-East."