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A bit of History


It has been 200 years since John Cockerill, who had arrived in Europe several years previously, settled in Seraing. William I of Orange, sovereign of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, then gave him the keys to the château that bears his name today, as a sign of support for the development of industrial mechanisation in Europe. The industrial revolution was underway!

John Cockerill, a visionary, set in motion a multitude of projects and achievements there that would forever change the Belgian, European and even global industrial landscape: looms, steam engines, cannons, boilers, steel works, locomotives, ship engines, etc.

Deceased in 1840 during a business trip to Warsaw, John Cockerill left his successors an entrepreneurial spirit and an expertise that still persist 200 years after his arrival in Seraing.

1802

Aged 12, John Cockerill joins his family, which had been established in Belgium since 1799

1817

John Cockerill buys Seraing Castle

1826

Firing of the first blast furnace in the region

1831

Manufacturing of cannon carriages

1835

Construction of “Le Belge” [the Belgian], the first steam locomotive on the European continent.

1840

Death of John Cockerill in Warsaw.

1842

Creation of the first “société anonyme” [public limited company] : Les Etablissements John Cockerill

1843

Construction of the first suspension bridge of Seraing, the first one made of iron in the region, that enabled workers to get to work by a means other than by boat

1856

Construction of the first transatlantic ocean liner

1878

Construction of steamers in Hoboken for the exploration of the Congo River by Stanley

1890

Expansion in China and construction of steel plants, bridges, and the first great railway from Beijing to Hankou (1904)

1898

Belgium is the world’s number 2 economic power

1905

Liège world’s fair. Cockerill rhymes with innovation on many fronts.

1927

Cockerill celebrates its 110th anniversary, with a visit from King Albert I.

1939

Construction of the T12: a legendary locomotive

1940

From merger to merger, the company’s centre of gravity veers from mechanical construction to steelmaking.

1950

Cockerill develops the market of electric and nuclear power plants

1982

Cockerill’s Mechanical Construction division becomes a subsidiary of the steelmaking concern Cockerill Sambre and takes the name of Cockerill Mechanical Industries (CMI).

2002

Usinor, a shareholder of the Walloon steelmaker Cockerill Sambre, sells CMI to an independent private shareholding structure, which still owns the Group to this day.

2004

Cockerill Mechanical Industries becomes Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie. This change of name highlights the determination of CMI to capitalise on the synergies from its two core lines of business, maintenance and engineering.

2016

After 4 years of diversification in environmental solutions, CMI turns it into a fully fledged line of business

2017

Celebration of Cockerill’s bicentennial

  • CMI GROUPE \ Design/Dev Scalp.be 2017