Staffing at Bradken's Dunedin foundry has slipped to 52, after it was confirmed six staff at its Hillside Rd site were made redundant this week.
The global Australian engineering and foundry company has trimmed its Dunedin staff numbers by almost 30% since October, from 74 to 52. Separately, foundry Esco is closing its Dunedin site at the end of the month, with the loss of 34 jobs.
Globally, Bradken has suffered from the major downturn in the mining sector and booked a $A241million ($NZ264.8million) loss for its past year, while its forward work outlook in Dunedin still appears to be challenging.
Bradken's executive general manager, Brad Ward, was contacted in Australia and said four Dunedin staff had finished work last week, and two yesterday, with one of the six being a voluntary redundancy.
''The foundry returned to a full five-day week during November,'' Mr Ward said in an email.
The level of activity at the Dunedin operations had prompted the redundancies, he said.
''Orders activity and workload remain low, hence the need for [this latest] further right-sizing.''
On the likelihood of new contracts, there was ''nothing firm but we can continue to pursue opportunities'', Mr Ward said.
While Esco in Dunedin is closing shortly, the bulk of its work is expected to be undertaken by other Esco foundries overseas.
Source: odt.co.nz
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