Samsung (www.samsung.com) is shutting its northeast England manufacturing plant that produces computer monitors and microwave ovens. The factory, which received UK government funding of GBP 450m when it was established in 1996, will close in April with the loss of 425 jobs. Falling world market prices are blamed for the closure, with production likely to be relocated to lower cost centres in Spain and eastern Europe. Staff at the plant had been given no prior warning of the impending closure. The shutdown has hit UK moulder Woo One UK (GB-Hartlepool TS25 1NN), a company established primarily to produce business machine housings for the Korean electronics group.

Woo One, one of several local moulding companies supplying Samsung, said it was not informed of the company´s decision until mid-January and thus has had insufficient time to find replacement business. The plant will be closed temporarily at the end of March and may be reopened this autumn, when new contracts are expected to have been won. Hartlepool Borough Council has pledged financial assistance. Woo One – which is understood to have some 20 injection moulding machines and associated finishing and decoration equipment – operates another European plant is in Slovakia, where it supplies a Samsung manufacturing unit near Bratislava. Established late in 2002 in a GBP 6.5m investment, this facility was planning to employ up to 500 people, with half its output being exported.