COLUMBIA, S.C. - General Electric announced plans Tuesday to cut 600 jobs at its gas turbine plant in Greenville during the next three to nine months.

The company said the cuts are part of a 1,000-job reduction in the Power Systems division as a result of a drop-off in orders for electricity producing turbines. The other 400 jobs will be cut in Schenectady, N.Y.

"As expected the ramp-down of our turbine shipments is continuing after several years of unprecedented demand in the U.S.," said Mark Little, vice president of the company's Energy Products division.

That demand led to a work force peak of 3,150 at the Greenville plant. But demand plunged in the fall of 2001 leading to a reduction of 1,000 jobs at the plant a year ago, including 250 salaried positions.

The latest layoffs will affect about 500 hourly workers and 100 salaried workers, company spokesman Mark Reilly said. The plant's employment will drop to about 1,600, he said.

It was just one of two big layoff announcements Tuesday in South Carolina.

Georgetown Steel filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. According to information at the state Employment Security Commission, 541 employees will be put out of work by the plant's closure.

In a news release, Georgetown Steel President Robert L. Hacker said the bankruptcy filing was a result of an increase in natural gas and scrap metal costs coupled with "weak market conditions and the continued flow of dumped and subsidized foreign steel."

So far this year, the Employment Security Commission has received announcements on layoffs and plant closings affecting more than 15,000 workers, according to the agency's Web site with the addition of the GE cuts. That's up from fewer than 13,000 workers affected by plant closings and layoffs in all of last year, but it's down from the previous year, when 26,701 workers - mostly in the textile industry - were laid off or saw their plants close.

The manufacturing job losses underscore the need to cut taxes and pursue more technologically advanced industries, said Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford.

"This reinforces what the governor's said from Day One about the need for two things in our approach to economic development as a state: income tax relief that's going to create jobs and improve our underlying business climate as well as a focus on creating more jobs in high-tech growth industries," Folks said.