JOBS could be under threat at ArvinMeritor’s truck trailers facility in Cwmbran, after part of the business suffered a 25 per cent drop in orders.

Production volumes within the sector that manufactures axles for truck trailers has experienced the drop since October 2008 and the company does not expect a significant recovery for several years.

The company is now half way through a consultation period with unions and employees, however, a spokesman stressed it has not yet formulated any preferred options for coping with the drop in business.

He cited the "extremely challenging long-term business climate in the European market for truck trailers", as the reason for the consultation period, saying the objective was to determine an appropriate future for the part that produces axles for truck trailers.

The spokesman added: “The company entered the 90-day consultation period without having made any decisions on the likely outcome and it remains committed to supporting its European trailer axle customers.”

Around 440 people are employed in total at the site, but around 300 of those work in the truck braking business, which is unaffected by the process.

There were 600 people employed at the plant in March 2008, but four rounds of redundancies in the space of a year cut that number to 440.

A spokesman for Torfaen AM Lynne Neagle confirmed that the AM was talking to company officials, but called it a "sensitive" situation saying she would not comment until after these have developed further.