A UK engineering firm has announced it is to create 200 new jobs, some of which will be based at its plant in Gwent.

Mabey Bridge, a British engineering firm who specialise in building and erecting bridges worldwide also have a factory in Chepstow, which makes the towers for wind turbines.

As part of an announcement on the company's global expansion plans Mabey Bridge, which employs 1100 people, intends to take on 200 employees by 2014 in a bid to increase turnover from £150million to £200million.

A spokesman for the firm, said: "I can confirm that some of the new jobs will be based in South Wales."

The Chepstow plant at Newhouse Farm Industrial Estate currently employs around 180 staff, and in January secured a lucrative deal to build 35 wind turbine towers for Nordex, a renewable energy company.

Peter Lloyd, CEO of Mabey, said: "The last 12 months has seen a great performance by Mabey in what has been a very challenging year for the construction and engineering sectors.

"We are extremely excited about the future and are confident that our three-pronged strategy of increasing our presence in Asia, pushing further into the US and actively targeting opportunities in the renewables sector will pay dividends."