Some of Cat's North-West operations will be shifted to Thailand, which the US-headquartered company said would provide a "more sustainable, long-term cost structure''.

The move is the latest in a string of job cuts in response to falling demand for the manufacturer's heavy mining equipment.

Cat told its employees the news today.

"Following an extensive strategic review of its Burnie operations, the company will accelerate the already announced production transition of underground mining models to Caterpillar's manufacturing facility in Rayong, Thailand, to achieve a more sustainable, long-term cost structure,'' the company said. 

It said the transition would take several months.

"This shift in production will allow us to streamline the Burnie manufacturing footprint and focus on the production of underground mining machine models that are largely used within the Australian market,'' Burnie facility manager Dan Barich said.

"We recognise this will impact our workforce and their families.

"We value our employees' contributions, and these actions are not a reflection of them, but rather the result of a need to make our underground mining business more efficient and competitive.''

Cat in Burnie currently produces  two ``families'' of underground mining hard rock machines.

They are load-haul-dump loaders (LHD) and articulated dump trucks (ADT).

After the change,  Burnie will continue to produce two LHD models and one ADT model.