The copper hammer of "Wöllersdorf an der Südbahn" is considered to be the root of today's company. Ore was processed there from 1525. After relocating to Styria and transforming into an iron hammer and sheet iron factory in 1711, the company merged with the Hungarian Sheet Metal Union and Johann Adolf Hütte to form STYRIA in 1854. With the division into two locations in 1939, Liezen became the forge, foundry and steelworks. The Krems site was chosen for the new sheet rolling mill and surface treatment.
Starting with the company name "Schmidhütte Krems, Schmid & Co. KG", further developed with the founding of HÜTTE KREMS Ges.m.b.H., then managed by VÖEST, HÜTTE KREMS finally became the property of VÖEST in 1963.
After the merger of VÖEST with Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft, the restructuring from sheet metal production to sheet metal processing took place within a few years. The effects of the merger of VÖEST with Oesterreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft coincided with the first oil crisis and the major break in the economic trend. From 1975, the effects of the international steel crisis, such as a general fall in prices, also reached Austria.
A main site of voestalpine AG.
Today, Krems is an important location of the globally operating voestalpine Group and the headquarters of the Metal Forming Division. The companies in the division uniquely combine materials expertise - the steel is produced less than 100 kilometers up the Danube in the voestalpine steelworks in Linz - and processing expertise, which is also expressed in the division's guiding principle: "Leading in metal forming with material expertise".
Dealing transparently with our history is important to us, because there is no alternative to the historical truth.
For this reason, the management of voestalpine Krems has handed over the documents of the forced laborers who worked at Schmidhütte between 1939 and 1945 to the historian Prof. Streibel for processing. The result was presented as an exhibition entitled "The second glance".
Key dates and highlights
- 1939: The starting signal is given at the Krems site - with the new sheet metal rolling mill and surface finishing to be built.
Clearing, leveling work and plant assembly by Belgian, French and Dutch prisoners of war from STALAG XVII B Krems-Gneixendorf - August 1942: Company name "Schmidhütte Krems, Schmid & Co. KG"
- April 4, 1943, 10 a.m.: Full commissioning of the "Schmidhütte Krems" plant
Commissioning of a 50-tonne Martin furnace for the production of steel - 1946: Foundation of Hütte Krems Ges.m.b.H.
The plant was run as a USIA operation for the first ten years after the war. - 1963: Incorporation of Hütte Krems Ges.m.b.H. as a subsidiary of VÖEST
- 1973: Merger of VÖEST with Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft to form VÖEST-ALPINE
- 1981: Renaming to VOEST-ALPINE Krems GmbH
Delivery of the three millionth ton of sheet metal from Linz to Krems in the period from 1955 to June 1981 and - 1990: voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik GmbH becomes a legally independent company on October 1
- 1995: The VOEST-ALPINE share is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange for the first time; transformation from a majority nationalized industry to a listed company
- 2001: The Group is renamed voestalpine AG