Another 1,500 workers in south China have fallen victim to the current global financial crisis as they will have to find new jobs when their factory closes next week.

Hong Kong-listed BEP International Holdings Limited announced it would shut its factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on Monday after its exports had dropped drastically this year registering huge deficits, a company spokesman told Xinhua on Saturday.

The company was currently paying arrears to its 1,500 workers. Some had found employment with other factories in the southern Hong Kong border city.

BEP, founded in 1986, is an export-oriented company. Most of its annual output of 5 million units of home appliances was sold to Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

It set up the 22,000-square-meter Shenzhen factory in 1992.

Earlier this week, 7,000 workers were sacked in Dongguan, also in Guangdong, after the Hong Kong-listed Smart Union Group (Holdings) Limited closed two factories.

Smart Union Group is one of the world's biggest toy makers. Most of its products are sold in the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2008)