The company has been considering a move away from Wapping, which started production in 1986, to a site with better communications links for distribution.

A source said the newspaper publisher was considering various options, including a move to a brownfield site at Dartford and a joint flexo venture with Associated Newspapers near Chelmsford.

However, a spokeswoman for News International said that there were no concrete plans and denied speculation that the company was involved in talks over the sale of the 14-acre Wapping site.

There has been a lot of speculation. There are no plans like that, but we always keep an eye out for any way we can improve our newspaper equipment and production, she said.

She added that News Internationals Convoys Wharf site at Deptford in south east London had confused some observers, but that the company was currently working with Lewisham Council to develop and sell the site.

The press order alone for a new print plant would be worth well over 100m, prompting one industry observer to say: I think that suppliers are very nervous because of the amounts being talked about. It really would be an order of life-changing proportions.

Another source said that News International had been in discussion with a number of key suppliers, including press manufacturers Goss, MAN Roland, KBA and Heidelberg, for quite some time.

* News International and Jefferson Smurfit officially opened their new 39m (60m) joint-venture printing plant in Kells, County Meath in Ireland earlier this month. It is equipped with three secondhand KBA Commander presses and allows News International to print all of its Irish editions in Ireland for the first time.

Story by John Davies