Up to 170 New Zealand employees may lose their jobs as an international cable supplier faces closure.

General Cable told staff on Tuesday that it planned to close its New Zealand manufacturing and support operations.

The company has 160 staff in Christchurch and 10 in Auckland.

All would be made redundant if the proposal went ahead.

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The company provides industrial power and phone cables in Australia and New Zealand.

Its factory in Sockburn, Christchurch, has been operating since the 1950s, employing 350 staff in 2010.

Demand had slumped since then, with a succession of redundancies in recent years.

Despite cutting costs, the New Zealand arm was no longer viable and was proposed to close.

"The proposal has been made with reluctance after reflection on the performance and long-term prospects of the business in its current form and the overall industry conditions in the region," the company's Oceania director David Peterson said in a statement.

"We have made a concerted effort to change the business to meet market challenges, through a reorganisation in New Zealand announced earlier this year and through the closure of the Australian sales offices.

"Regrettably, these changes have not been sufficient to overcome the fundamental issues."

The company would consult with employees before deciding whether to proceed.

If it went ahead, it would aim to stop manufacturing by March next year.

About 50 per cent of the cable made in Christchurch was exported overseas.

It would continue to sell product in New Zealand sourced from its other factories if the closure went ahead.

General Cable is a Fortune 500 company based in the US-state of Kentucky.

It has 11,000 employees worldwide and revenue of USD$6 billion.