Kvaerner to shed 3000 jobs world-wide

Engineering group Kvaerner has announced it is shedding 3,000 jobs world-wide over the next six months. The Anglo-Norwegian company said that some of the losses would fall in the UK, where the division employs 6,000 workers.
Details of exactly where the cuts will fall have not yet been worked out, but the cuts will concentrate on three core areas, one of which is oil and gas. Kvaerner chiefs indicated they want to halve the group's capacity for rig-building and concentrate more on the hi-tech side of the division, which makes seabed measuring equipment, communications systems and other products.
The group has two British rig-building operations in Methil, Fife, and Port Clarence on Teesside. One of the two is expected to be closed, along with one of two plants in Norway. Its oil and gas operations also have design and engineering operations in London, Croydon and Aberdeen.