Major culls are expected to be announced at GKN as a bleak picture is painted today in its interim management summary.
Reports anticipate the loss of around 1400 staff though it is not currently clear where the cuts will be suffered.
The firm said group profit from the third quarter was down £4 million on last year. Standing at 4 per cent overall, it is below expectations for 2008 so far.
The main underperforming industry for GKN is automotive. The firm said it expects a 30 per cent decline in profits from the sector in quarter four on the same period last year as consumers shy away from the new car market while a backdrop of economic uncertainty continues to cloud the western world.
Input costs have further increased the pressure on the sectors performance. Scrap steel, GKN said, reached $870 per tonne in July before falling back to its current level of around $230 per tonne.
The company has around 5000 employees in the UK with 2,500 at its headquarters in Redditch, Worcestershire.
The strikes at aerospace firm Boeing in the US have also had an adverse affect on the firm’s fortunes. It said it expected an eight per cent deficit in its original predictions for quarter eight, should the industrial action continue at its current level through to the end of 2008. GKN said its aerospace business “remains robust” despite of the situation.
As well as its Redditch base GKN has UK plants in Birmingham and Telford in the Midlands.
