Rudolf’s Iron Works, 1828 - 1843

In the mid 1820’s, the Olomouc archdiocese decided to modernize and expand its iron works in Frýdlant. A part of the reconstruction project was prepared by František Xavier Riedl, a professor of the Polytechnic School in Vienna, and involved in the construction of a puddling works with a rolling mill, where pig iron would be refined with new technology to produced rails for the construction of a north-south railway that would come to be known as the Northern Ferdinand Railway

The puddling works in Vítkovice were established in December 1828 by Olomouc archbishop, Archduke Rudolf Jan. The first puddling furnace in the Austrian monarchy was placed in the Rudolf’s Iron Works, as the iron and steel works was called, in September 1830.

From 1835-1843 the iron and steel works were leased to the Viennese bankers, as Vítkovice Mining. This leasehold company continued building the iron and steel works ac-cording to Riepl’s project, and put the blast furnace facilities, the rails rolling mill and other workshops into operation

In Possession of the Rothschilds, 1843 - 1873

In 1843, the owner of the iron and steel works in Vítkovice became Salomon Mayer Rothschild. At that time, the Vítkovice Plant consisted of a blast furnace with a foundry, pud-dling shop and rolling mill, forging shop, boiler plant, a drilling shop and a lathe workshop with a machine shop, as well as a plant for making bricks.

The Vítkovice Iron and Steel Works were built vertically from the very beginning – along with the establishment of the metallurgical plant and mechanical workshops, bitumi-nous coal and ore mines were exploited, as were limestone and other raw materials necessary for manufacture. In the late 1960’s, the Rothschilds joined forces with the brothers David and Wilhelm Gutmann, coal traders. At first, they were partners in mining companies, later in the construc-tion of the Sophy’s Iron Works. In 1873, they established Vítkovice Coal and Ore Mining.

Vítkovice Coal and Ore Mining (VHHT) 1873 - 1918

At this point, Vítkovice consisted of the Iron and Steel Works, the Louis, Hlubina, Teresie, Anselm, Oskar and Bettina bituminous coal mines and the Karolina and Vítkovice coking plants.
The iron and steel works were developed in the last quarter of the 19th century thanks to the central Director, Paul Kupelwieser who engineered a principal reorganization. In 1883, he built the first tube rolling mill in Austria and implemented the production of side products in the coke and iron producing process. In 1887, a new plant for cast steel was built and arms production was expanded. The Sophy Iron works were bought by Vítkovice Coal and Ore Mining in 1889. In 1897, the first ship shafts were made in the cast steel foundry, and the manufacture of steel cylinders dates back to 1906.

From the mid 1890’s, the Vítkovice Iron and Steel Works, joint-stock company, es-tablished iron ore mining companies in Sweden and Slovakia. The Vítkovice Iron and Steel Works participated actively in the foundation of the first production and trade corporations in the iron industry. They assured sales of their products not only through cartel shops, but they gradually built up their own network of sales offices and agencies throughout the monarchy and abroad.

At that time, independent workshops were separated from mechanical workshops: the bridge building works, a boiler shop and an engineering plant were also established. Com-mencement of operation in the new steel works and rolling mill built in Ostrava – Hulváky from 1909-1912 put the Vítkovice Iron and Steel works among the top European iron compa-nies.

VHHT from 1918 - 1945

After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, Vítkovice Iron and Steel Works continued to be in the possession of its existing owners.

In 1919, a benzol plant was put into operation, and one year later a cold rolling mill. Vítkovice’s central sales office managed the sale of turnouts, cast iron castings and forgings. The boiler shop, bridge building works, engineering plant and fire-brick factory sold their products directly to their customers.

The production program was broadened in the engineering plant with equipment for deep wells, cranes, equipment for rolling mills, coking plants and mines, cylinders for paper mills, gearboxes and mining tools. The boiler shop produced gas holders, equipment for coke cooling with dry cooling towers, high pressure Löffler boilers and boiler units for hydroelec-tric stations. The bridge building works realized deliveries for high-rise constructions, bridges (in 1932, the largest European bridge of that time was made, two stories tall over the Old Dnepr near Kiev, Ukraine), an exhibition hall for the World Exhibition in Paris, as well as a railway station hall in Teheran.

Between the two world wars, the Vítkovice Iron and Steel Works owned a number of affiliated companies engaged in coal and ore mining and chemical production, transportation and the like. It had investments in dozens of other companies.

Vítkovice coal and ore mining never became a German property during the war. But production capacity and commercial relations of the iron and steel works were used for the interests of Nazi Germany.

The Vítkovice Iron and Steel Works of Klement Gottwald 1945 - 1970

After the war, the state took over the iron and steel works, and in December 1945, it was officially nationalized as Vítkovice Coal and Ore Mining. As of 1. 1. 1946, the company was renamed Vítkovické železárny (Vitkovice Iron and Steel Works).

Between 1947-1960 more confiscated properties and nationalized companies joined the Vitkovice plant. The Svinov Mannesmann Tube Plant, the Kotouč limestone quarry in Štramberk, and the Lískovec bridge building works were consolidated. At the same time, Nová huť in Kunčice and Hutní montáže were spun off in 1952 and 1963 respectively.

In the middle of the 1950’s, reconstruction and modernization of the company began. First and foremost, the steelmaking furnaces were remodeled, and repairs were made on all of the trains in the rolling mill. A new oxygen plant was built, and conveyor belts were laid to the blast furnaces. In the 1960’s, an extensive investment construction was realized. Among the biggest investment projects were the erection of blast furnace no. VI, and the building of a large-area ore homogenizing unit. The rolling mill and steel plant were also reconstructed, and new halls were built for heavy machinery.

In the 1960’s, a new agriculture program led to the production of hay towers and grain silos, tanks for liquid fertilizers, storage tanks for loose materials, water reservoirs and plough cutting edges. The manufacture of HYDROVIT sewage treatment plants was implemented.

Development of the Company from 1970-1989

From the end of the 1980’s, extensive investments in metallurgical and machinery plants were carried out. In 1973, operation of central slag granulation in plant 1 began, and in 1976 a blast furnace with bell-less top control was built. In 1972, the Old steel plant got a new vacuum degassing station, and in 1976, induction stirring in 30 ton electric furnaces was implemented. After the start of operation of the thick plate rolling mill, four-high rolling mill 3.5 in 1971, a second stage of construction was carried out. An OXYVIT oxygen converter with bottom blast was built in steel plant I. In the Old steel plant, a complex for the produc-tion of Nuclear Power Plant components was completed. A new metal spraying workshop in plant 6 was put into operation in 1977.

From the middle of the 1970’s, the production basis for Nuclear Power Engineering components was built. At the same time, investments were made for the production of large-sized coke-oven batteries, large-sized mining machines and unique investment units. Large investment units were manufactured for export, including the Blast furnace in Eisenhütten-stadt and tubes extrusion plant in Riese, Germany, the rolling mill in Zawiercie, Poland and a sintering plant in Jugoslavia. A TŠP 2500 hot-rolled wide band mill in Novolipenck was a unique delivery. 44 % of the volume of engineering exports consisted of piece supplies. The development of the agricultural and ecological program begun in the middle of the 1960’s continued.

In 1972, for the first time, the charge of blast furnace no. IV was controlled by com-puter, and in 1974, the operation of a new four-high mill 3.5. In 1978, a large-capacity com-puter system, known as ICL 2960, was put into operation. Till the middle of the eighties, the project of integrated all-company control and information system on the basis of optimal inte-gration – automated control system was running.

In 1979, the Vítkovické Iron and Steel Works became a branch enterprise called VÍTKOVICE - Železárny a strojírny Klementa Gottwalda to which six companies with re-lated production programs were affiliated. From 1981 to the middle of 1989 VÍTKOVICE – ŽSKG was the biggest company within the VÍTKOVICE syndicate.

Company Reorganization and Restructuring from 1990 - 2003

The fall of communism in 1989 led to the break-up of the syndicate and the establish-ment of a new state enterprise called simply VÍTKOVICE; a dramatic period of organiza-tional and personal changes came into effect.

In the middle of 1990, a company business plan was prepared to help wean the com-pany from its barter-based markets to meet the challenges of the real market economy.

Company organization changed continually after its establishment as a joint-stock company in February 1992. Activities not directly associated with production were split-off from the company. Business units and cost centers became independently affiliated compa-nies. A few of them passed to new owners. The company also changed its production pro-gram.

The foundation of the affiliated company VÍTKOVICE - Strojírenství, a.s. at the end of 2002 completed the process of transformation of the VÍTKOVICE joint-stock company to a holding company.

On June 1st, 2005 the company changed its name to VÍTKOVICE HEAVY MA-CHINERY a.s. and will make efforts to strongly promote this new brand name.

Prepared according to PhDr.Jana Machotková : Digest of VÍTKOVICE a.s. history