COPENHAGEN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Engine builder MAN Diesel's plant in Frederikshavn, Denmark, aims to cut about 500 jobs, halving its workforce to adjust to a drop in orders, the company said on Tuesday.
MAN Diesel is part of Munich-based truck maker MAN SE, which last week reported a plunge in second-quarter operating results in line with market expectations and said it saw no sign of an upturn.
The MAN Diesel plant in Frederikshavn makes marine engines and other ship propulsion equipment.
"MAN Diesel's production location in Frederikshavn is particularly badly affected by the decreasing order intake and cancellations of orders in the shipbuilding industry," MAN Diesel said in a statement.
It said it aimed to close down engine production at the site and transfer production of two engine type series to other MAN Diesel locations.
"The restructuring of the location will entail that the management intends to halve the workforce to approximately 500 employees," it said.
After ending engine production, MAN Diesel in Frederikshavn would focus on after-sales and propulsion systems, the company said.
When reporting second-quarter results on July 30, the MAN Group said that the European truck market could drop by more than half this year.
The group, which had 49,472 employees at the end of June, announced in mid-July plans to merge its Diesel Engines and Turbo Machinery business areas in 2010 into a new business area called Power Engineering with a global workforce of 12,000.
The Diesel Engines division had 7,975 employees and the Turbo division 4,812 at the end of the second quarter.
Regional radio P4 Nordjylland, an arm of Danish national broadcaster DR, said the MAN Diesel redundancies were the worst to hit the north Jutland town of Frederikshavn in 10 years. (Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Hans Peters)