THE manufacturing sector faced a fresh wave of job cuts yesterday, as firms looked to tighten their belts in the face of the global economic slowdown.

Swiss-Swedish electrical group ABB plans to axe 12,000 jobs during the next 18 months. The group announced the cut as it revealed half-year earnings before tax had fallen to £440m.

In January, ABB agreed to buy ICI's engineering consultancy business, Eutech, which employs 300 staff at the Belasis Business Park on Teesside.

ABB president and chief executive Jorgen Centerman said: "We are taking action now to improve our competitiveness, as we expect challenging conditions over the next 12 months."

Meanwhile, London engineering group Invensys plans to shed 2,500 jobs worldwide. The latest redundancies mean that the group, which makes automation systems and controls, is on course to reduce staff numbers by seven per cent, or 6,000 people, this year.

News and information group Reuters said it would cut staff numbers by 1,100 over the next two years as it moved to reduce costs. The group, which employs about 18,000 staff globally, said it was speeding up its cost-savings programme to support future profitability.

Also announcing job losses was telecoms group Lucent Technologies, which has already laid-off more than 10,000 people this year. The US firm, which has operations around the world, said it planned to axe 15,000 to 20,000 jobs.