ELECTRONICS components firm SMK has announced a second round of redundancies at its Newton Aycliffe plant.

The company announced in May that it was shedding 58 jobs, blaming a fall in orders for mobile phones.

Only 39 jobs were actually lost, mostly through voluntary redundancy, and the other staff were retained following an upturn in some areas of business.

But the continuing slump in the mobile phone market has forced the company, which also makes remote control units for televisions and control panels for photocopiers, to shed a further 27 jobs - mainly assembly operators - next month.

SMK personnel director Les Dixon said: "It is extremely disappointing that we find ourselves looking to implement a second phase of redundancies.

"For our part, we will do all we can to help our employees who are faced with redundancy.

"Hopefully the number of enforced redundancies will be kept to a minimum, but this will only become evident during the consultation process.

"We continue to retain other elements of our existing business, and are attracting new business, but the market place continues to be volatile and uncertain at the present time."

The news is the latest in a series of jobs blows on Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate and comes shortly after Sanyo announced that its Aycliffe plant was to close, leaving 300 staff with an uncertain future.