Thyssen and Co
of Essen
1871 the factory of Thyssen and Co was started on a farm at Styrum, near Mulheim, for the manufacture and sale of hoop iron and other fine iron products. The business was built up in the teeth of financial depression, but in thirty years August Thyssen had secured his world markets.[1]
From 1883, August Thyssen purchased shares in Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser as the plant was ideally located for his business plans. With its own coal mine, works dock on the River Rhine and link to the railway network, the location ensured the productivity of the operations.
In the following years August Thyssen rationalizes, modernizes and enlarges the production of iron and steel and systematically expands both the raw materials base (foreign ore mines) and the manufacturing operations (shipbuilding, machine casting etc.) of his companies. He ensures that the products of the newly acquired or established companies fit together well to form a vertically integrated group.
1926 A few weeks after August Thyssen's death, large parts of the Thyssen group are transferred to Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG. His son Fritz Thyssen is appointed supervisory board chairman of the new group.
1934 August Thyssen-Hütte AG was founded as an operating company of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG. It is a horizontally-integrated enterprise comprising the five iron and steelworks of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG in the Duisburg area, focused on the production of sectional steel and semi-finished products. These plants are an important supplier of preliminary products for the subsequent war economy.
Post-WWII On allied orders, the company is liquidated after the war
1953 a new August Thyssen-Hütte AG is established in Duisburg with the sole purpose of putting the largely dismantled Thyssen iron and steelworks back into operation.
The other Duisburg-based iron and steel mills of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG initially go it alone as legally independent companies before returning to the Thyssen group in the 1950s and 1960s.
1950s/1960s August Thyssen-Hütte AG expanded to a steel group. The group's range took in sectional and flat products in all grades through to high-alloy stainless steel. In parallel, the iron and steel mills were rapidly enlarged. By the mid 1960s, August Thyssen-Hütte AG was Europe's largest producer of crude steel and ranked number five worldwide. In addition to horizontal diversification, from 1960 a trading organization, Handelsunion AG (renamed Thyssen Handelsunion AG in 1969), was added.
The final phase of horizontal diversification at August Thyssen-Hütte AG led to specialization through cooperation. In 1969 Mannesmann AG and August Thyssen-Hütte AG agreed to a division of responsibilities, summed up in the phrase "tubes for Mannesmann, rolled steel for Thyssen".
By the end of the 1960s August Thyssen-Hütte AG was a single structured steel group.
1973 The group started to change direction with the acquisition of Rheinstahl AG, whose operations focussed on manufacturing.
1977 August Thyssen-Hütte AG changed its name to Thyssen AG. To document the fact that Rheinstahl AG now represents the manufacturing division of the Thyssen Group, it was renamed Thyssen Industrie AG.
As early as the 1980s negotiations were conducted on a merger of Thyssen Stahl AG and Krupp Stahl AG. Although the proposed alliance cannot be realized in 1983, the two companies cooperate closely in selected Business Areas.
1997 the two groups’ flat steel activities were combined to form Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG.
In August 1997 Thyssen and Krupp held talks on expanding their cooperation. They identify immense potential for strategic development and operating synergies in a full merger.
1999 The full merger took place on March 17 to form Thyssen Krupp AG
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Engineer 1926/04/16
- [1] History