History - Moravské železárny, a.s.

The firm Moravske zelezarny (the Moravian Ironworks) was established in the year 1907 and its one hundred years of existence can be divided into several stages. From the year of its establishment till the year 1910, the enterprise was a private company. From the very beginning of its existence, the Moravske zelezarny was a traditional, almost complete metallurgical base used, on the one hand, for final products of its own (forks, axles, fittings, bridge elements, buffers, bearing railway carriage chambers, automatic railway carriage couplers, flanges) and, on the other hand, another considerable part of production having the character of machine metallurgy supplied, in cooperation, other enterprises active in the field of machine industry. The original production included a forge for both die block forgings and smith forgings, a grey-iron foundry and machine working of forgings and castings.

From the year 1911 till the year 1945, the Moravske zelezarny was a joint stock company owned by the Moravska agrarni and prumyslova banka (the Moravian Agrarian and Industrial bank). In the year 1912, production was extended by castings of malleable cast iron and in the year 1913 by castings of cast steel. The production of fittings started in the year 1922. All necessary sources, especially for the production of cores and for cutting of fittings, were acquired.

In the year 1946, the company became a national enterprise. Production was expanded and in the post-war period the enterprise became a monopoly manufacturer of fittings in our republic. The construction of a new foundry of malleable cast iron in the year 1953 started practically the greatest development of production of fittings and at that time, this part of the operation boasted one of the most modern foundries implementing the most progressive technologies. The production of nodular cast iron started in the year 1959 and was the first of this kind in Czechoslovakia. For several years, bearing chambers were the sole product, however, starting from the year 1964, production began to expand and new products were gradually added, primarily those designed for the tractor industry, for agricultural machinery and for automobiles. For several years, crankshafts for automobiles, tractors and Diesel engines were also developed.

In the year 1994, the Moravske zelezarny, a.s. became a trading company. In the same year, the company gained, namely as the first commercial foundry in the Czech Republic, the ISO 9002 certificate for malleable cast iron and in the year 1996, for fittings as well.

In the year 2002 the Moravske zelezarny were split up into several independent enterprises. Then, the historic name covered the production of fittings, small castings of malleable, grey and white iron as well as that of die forgings. The following years brought, however, a financial crisis to the enterprise resulting, finally, in the sale of the firm to a new owner- i.e. to the company ARCADA Capital, a.s., in the year 2005. At present, the company Moravske zelezarny is renewing its machinery and realizing modernization and investments which should satisfy the ever increasing requirements of clients as for the quality of production. Its products are sold both on the domestic and on foreign markets, exports making up as much as 80% of production.