KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 3): TH Heavy Engineering Bhd dipped as much as two sen or 5% to 38 sen after The Edge Financial Daily (Edge FD) reported that the company is retrenching workers.

At 10.55am, some five million shares changed hands.

Edge FD, quoting TH Heavy's memorandum, reported that the firm had cut its workforce effective last Monday (Dec 1) in order to withstand the current headwinds in the oil and gas (O&G) industry.

The retrenchment comes amid tumbling crude oil prices on oversupply concerns.

The price trend does not augur well for O&G support services providers such as TH Heavy, which has failed to secure enough contracts to weather the possible slowdown in the industry.

National oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) had last Friday announced a cut in capital expenditure by 15% to 20%.

It was reported that TH was retrenching selected employees that were hired in anticipation of clinching at least one fabrication job from Petronas in either the Baronia oil field or Bergading central processing platform.

TH failed to secure the Bergading project and it was reported that the company would likely fall out of the race to get the Baronia job.