WORKERS at a Newport electronics firm were yesterday told that 24 members of staff are to be made redundant.

It's another blow for Newport's struggling hi-tech industries - after redundancies at firms like ESM.

Workers at AB Electronic Assemblies Ltd in Rogerstone received a letter from their parent company yesterday confirming the 24 jobs are to be lost.

The figure represents a cut in the workforce of ten per cent, and workers say it comes only weeks after a forced seven-day lay-off in February.

It has not yet been confirmed which employees will go, and the letter sent to staff says the company is consulting over the next 30 days over further numbers to be made redundant. The news comes despite rumours that the circuit-board assembly company was to be awarded a long-term contract from the Ministry of Defence.

The letter from managing director Graham Davies said: "During the latter part of 2001 the demand from our customers substantially reduced due to a worldwide recession. "Despite this, the management team decided to wait until the beginning of this year to see if there were any signs of improvement.

"It was hoped that through the lay-off and holidays taken during February a redundancy could be avoided but unfortunately looking forward we cannot see any upturn. "Therefore, regrettably, we have to announce a redundancy."

A worker at the factory said: "The managing director and a couple of others have gone to America to try to finalise a deal and get some work.

"But the morale down here was absolutely rock-bottom, even before this announcement. Companies in this industry are looking grim at the moment." l The firm refused to comment on the job losses last night.