The management of Odense Steel Shipyard Ltd, the Maersk group's shipbuilding arm, is launching a negotiation process that aims to reduce the number of employees owing to a lack of new orders.

The initiative may result in 140 salaried employees in the administration, design and engineering departments being laid off, a company statement said.

Some 440 salaried employees will remain on the payroll and efforts will continue towards obtaining new orders.

The yard currently employs 575 salaried and 2,600 wage-earning employees.

The management of Odense Steel Shipyard and employee representatives will form a negotiation committee in order to reduce the impact of the proposed job cuts.

The statement said that the yard's management are "open to all proposals", including the establishment of a job centre.