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.
Aged 12, John Cockerill joins his family, which had been established in Belgium since 1799
John Cockerill buys Seraing Castle
Firing of the first blast furnace in the region
Manufacturing of cannon carriages
Construction of “Le Belge” [the Belgian], the first steam locomotive on the European continent.
Death of John Cockerill in Warsaw.
Creation of the first “société anonyme” [public limited company] : Les Etablissements John Cockerill
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
Construction of the first transatlantic ocean liner
Construction of steamers in Hoboken for the exploration of the Congo River by Stanley
Expansion in China and construction of steel plants, bridges, and the first great railway from Beijing to Hankou (1904)
Belgium is the world’s number 2 economic power
Liège world’s fair. Cockerill rhymes with innovation on many fronts.
Cockerill celebrates its 110th anniversary, with a visit from King Albert I.
Construction of the T12: a legendary locomotive
From merger to merger, the company’s centre of gravity veers from mechanical construction to steelmaking.
Cockerill develops the market of electric and nuclear power plants
Cockerill’s Mechanical Construction division becomes a subsidiary of the steelmaking concern Cockerill Sambre and takes the name of Cockerill Mechanical Industries (CMI).
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.
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.
After 4 years of diversification in environmental solutions, CMI turns it into a fully fledged line of business
Celebration of Cockerill’s bicentennial
