Alpine Montan (1881–1945) The Alpine Montangesellschaft (English: Alpine Mining Society) was founded in
Vienna on 19 July 1881, as a vehicle of consolidating Austrian iron and steel assets. Some of these assets were later depleted, abandoned or sold. The core assets that remained concentrated in
Styria: the
iron ore pits in
Erzberg and a steel mill in Donawitz. The company also owned smaller businesses and railroads in the
Mur River valley and in
Lower Austria (
Krems and
Schwechat). Alpine, chaired by
Karl Wittgenstein, peaked in 1912, when it owned four coal mines, two iron ore mines and six metallurgical plants. In 1922, fifty-six percent of Alpine Montangesellschaft, then owned by
Fiat (see
Camillo Castiglioni), was purchased by
Hugo Stinnes for the German giant
Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG (VS). After the
Nazi Party came to power in Germany, the Nazi leadership and the German steel barons clashed in a conflict over the rate of economic growth: the Nazis demanded rapid buildup of industrial capacity while the big business feared
overproduction and preferred to keep
status quo. In the first half of 1937 the Nazi leadership openly broke with the steel barons and settled for state control over iron and steel production. In the same year
Hermann Göring expressed his desire to control Austrian iron reserves at Erzberg. After the
Anschluss state-owned
Reichswerke Hermann Göring purchased a 13% share in Alpine, and for the next six months wrestled with the VS over control of the company. In March 1939, the VS stepped aside and the Reichswerke acquired 70% share of Alpine in exchange for a 10% share in the new plant in
Linz. In June 1939, its name was changed to
Alpine Montan AG Hermann Göring. In 1944, the peak year for Alpine, its sales reached , 16% of the whole mining and steel sales of the Reichswerke.
Construction of Reichswerke in Linz (1938) The Reichswerke announced its plans for a new steel mill in Linz before the takeover of Alpine, as an incentive for VS to extract more ore at Erzberg. On 13 May 1938, the ground breaking ceremony for the Hermann Göring Werke in Linz was held.
Paul Pleiger was appointed chief of the Reichswerke in Linz for his services to the Nazis during the Anschluss. The
synergy of steel works in Linz and ore reserves at Erzberg,
vertically integrated into the Reichswerke, made it virtually independent of the steel elite of the
Ruhr. The works in Linz were viewed as a hub of a future steel conglomerate spanning over the whole Central Europe. The integration was completed with the takeover of Danube shipping companies and local construction businesses. Between 1943 and 1944, when the
Ruhr was heavily bombed (see
Battle of the Ruhr), Hitler demanded a sharp increase in steel production in Austria. Göring launched a huge and unmanageable expansion campaign and spared no expense, all in vain: the Allied bombers levelled most of Linz, too.
Reconstruction (1945–1955) During 1945,
Allied-occupied Austria was partitioned into four occupation zones; the heavy industries of the former Reichswerke concentrated in the American (Linz) and British (Erzberg) zones. The future of Linz was debated in 1945–1946. Local government of
Styria and the British objected to reconstruction of Linz works, calling it
the white elephant, too far from coal and ore reserves, and too large to be economical. The American authorities at first concurred and suggested to reduce the Linz works to eight
coke ovens under Alpine-Mountain management, dismantle the furnaces and use the parts for the needed repairs in Donawitz (Styria). The Soviets voted to dismantle Linz altogether. In the summer of 1946, when allied negotiations on Linz reached a stalemate, the Americans decided to restore Linz unilaterally, regardless of British or Soviet opinion. Tactics of reconstruction became a subject of a debate between the
Department of State, which advocated
nationalization, and the
U. S. Army, represented by
Mark W. Clark, who stood for privatization. The diplomats prevailed, and the Austrian government was allowed to nationalize the former German assets at will. The mills of Linz were nationalized in July 1946 as the VÖEST (
Vereinigte
Österreichische
Eisen und
Stahlwerke, United Austrian Iron and Steelworks). VÖEST decided to dispose with three of its six
blast furnaces. One was dismantled and sold to
SSAB (then known as Norrbottens Järnverk AB) in
Luleå,
Sweden; the proceeds were used to purchase coal in
Poland. The supply of coal allowed VÖEST to restart its
pig iron smelting operation in June 1947; the first pig iron was shipped to Sweden. and it finally fell apart after the
Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948. Brewster supported the Austrian four-year plan but its key opponent Franz Nemchak called it "a colossal stupidity" and demanded a halt on VÖEST program. VÖEST received its new
slabbing mill but the new hot strip mill was delayed by the opposition of the Pentagon, which feared that VÖEST product would be sold to the Soviet bloc. By the end of 1953, the first phase of reconstruction was complete. By June 1949, VÖEST developed an adaptation of Durrer's process, the LD (Linz-Donawitz) process, (German: LD Verfahren; U.S. names: Oxygen Converter Process, Basic Oxygen Furnace Process, BOP, OSM). In December 1949, the VÖEST and the ÖAMG committed to building their first 30-ton oxygen converters. Thirty-four thousand businesspeople and engineers visited the VÖEST converter by 1963. Restructuring of Austria's nationalised industries by 1988 produced a company called Voest-Alpine Stahl AG. In 1993, three companies formed from Austrian Industries AG--
Voest-Alpine Technologie AG, and Voest-Alpine Stahl AG, and
Böhler-Uddeholm. Privatisation began in 1995, when Voest-Alpine got listed on
Vienna Stock Exchange. and the government sold its last shares of the company in 2003. Voest-Alpine Stahl owned 21.25 of Voest-Alpine Technologie, which was the parent company of the former Voest-Alpine plant-building unit
Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau, split from the larger company in 1956. At the time, the company stated its goal to be a 15 percent share of European auto-body parts. In 1998, Voest-Alpine Stahl and
Vossloh AG joined to purchase 90 percent of VAE Group. The Austrian manufacturer of
railroad switches, turnout systems and related products was founded in 1851. as Hugo-Hütte by
Hugo Henckel von Donnersmarck and owned by Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft from 1889 until that company's 1973 merger with Voest-Alpine AG, and had been independent since 1990. and in 2003 VAE Group GmbH became a subsidiary of voestalpine Bahnsysteme division.
voestalpine AG (2001–present) In 2001, the name of Voest-Alpine Stahl Group changed to voestalpine AG In April 2007, voestalpine made a bid for 20.95 percent of the Austrian
tool steel producer
Böhler-Uddeholm, which was created in 1991 from the merger of Böhler Group and
Swedish Uddeholm Group, the latter acquired by Voest-Alpine Stahl AG in 1990. In March 2008, voestalpine said it owned 90.24% of Böhler-Uddehom and intended to buy the rest. In February 2018, voestalpine started constructing a steel mill in
Linz,
Austria specifically utilizing 6 MW hydrogen fuel technology instead of coal, which started in late 2019. ==Main divisions==