Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei
| GmbH. | |
| Industry | Mechanical engineering |
| Predecessor | (1939-46) Schmidhütte Liezen, Schmid & Co. KG. (1946-53) Hütte Liezen Ges.m.b.H. (1954-63) Vereinigte Österreichische Eisen- und Stahlwerke AG, Werk Liezen (1964-72) VÖEST – Werk Liezen (1973-83) VOEST – Alpine AG – Werk Liezen (1987-89) Noricum Maschinenbau und Handel GmbH (1989-94) Maschinenfabrik Liezen Ges.m.b.H. |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Liezen, Austria |
| Products | Milling and sawing machines, mineral crushers |
| Services | Metal engineering, casting |
| Website | www.mfl.at |
Coordinates: 47°33′51″N 14°15′04″E / 47.5642°N 14.2512°E
Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei GesmbH is a foundry and mechanical engineering company based in Liezen, Austria. The company's origins date to 1939 when a factory was established in Liezen for war materials production. Post WWII the company "Hütte Liezen" entered state control and became a subsidiary to VÖEST in the 1950s. During the 1980s the company was involved in the 'Noricom' arms scandal due to its production of heavy artillery which were illegally exported.
After independence from VOEST in the 1980s and bankruptcy in the 1990s the company was restarted as Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei Ges.m.b.H. in 1994. As of 2012 the company has extensive mechanical engineering facilities and foundry, and manufactures industrial milling and sawing machines. Several associate companies acquired after 1994 manufacture mineral processing equipment.
Iron ore deposits close to Liezen had been known to exist since the 1200s; mining and smelting took place in the Liezen area till the end of the 19th century. In 1939, the family of industrialists Schmid-Schmidsfelden created a works in Liezen; this was for the war effort and was not intended to be a post-war commercial business. By 1944, 1100 people were working at the plant. In May 1945, the American Allied army had reached Liezen and the plant was closed. In 1945 the facilities included a steelworks and foundry building of over 10,000 m2 (110,000 sq ft) and another building of over 7,500 m2 (81,000 sq ft) with metal treatment (cleaning, annealing etc.) and mechanical engineering facilities, as well as various outbuildings, offices and power generation facilities.
The plant was nationalised in 1946, becoming Hütte Liezen GesmbH, with a workforce reduced to 350. By the 1950s, employment had risen to nearly 1000 workers; in 1953 due to a difficult economic environment the plant was transferred under lease to the care of VÖEST of Linz for 15 years - the plant's name became VÖEST-Liezen - production synergies between the two plants were optimised - with the Liezen works receiving steel from VÖEST's Linz plant. In 1963, the workforce was approximately 1300.
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