The industry has been plagued with cut backs

But Solectron has ruled out the entire closure of the site at this stage.

The company took over the Cwmcarn factory from the Canadian telecom giant Nortel less than a year ago.

At the time unions feared that cut backs would be on the agenda.

A spokesman has said it is addressing the impact of changing economic conditions and resulting changes in customer demand.

Latest blow

The plant produces telephone equipment - the sort of basic electronic assembly work that has been leaving Wales in large volumes recently.

Last year Panasonic, Sony and Hitachi announced more than 2,000 redundancies at plants in south Wales.

Hitachi axed 350 jobs claiming it had lost nearly �20m in the past five years because of the drop in the price of televisions.

Japanese electronics giant Sony cut 400 jobs at its television plants at Bridgend and neighbouring Pencoed.

The company said that it followed a major reorganisation by Sony in Europe to cope with the changes in the television markets

Meanwhile announcing a partial switch of production to eastern Europe, Panasonic blamed uncertainty over Britain's entry into the euro as a reason for over a thousand job losses at its Cardiff site.