Plant equipment manufacturer Caterpillar has announced 100 jobs are set to be cut as revenues fall…
In a major blow for the plant equipment sector, manufacturer Caterpillar has revealed 100 jobs are to be cut at its Northern Ireland operations.
The firm currently employs around 2,000 people at Larne and Monkstown. Caterpillar announced in September it was planning to cut up to 5,000 jobs by the end of 2016, with twenty management and supervisor roles expected to go in Northern Ireland.
This latest round of cuts is not the first. Since 2011, operations in Northern Ireland have lost more than 1,000 members of staff.
In a company statement, the firm said: “Current weaknesses in the economies of some key markets are impacting on global demand for a number of our products.”
The collapse of commodity prices, the firm said, had affected its key consumer base in the mining and energy sectors. The cuts have come as part of cost cutting attempt to save $1.5bn by the end of 2016.
As a result of poor performance, Caterpillar said it expected sales revenues to fall for the fourth year in a row this year. This is the first time this has happened in the company’s history.
The news comes a week after JCB announced it was cutting 290 jobs at its Staffordshire operations.