Reșița works

The Reșița works are two companies, TMK Reșița and UCM Reșița, located in Reșița, in the Banat region of Romania. Founded in 1771 and operating under a single structure until 1948 and then from 1954 to 1962, during the Communist era they were known respectively as the Reșița Steel Works (Combinatul Siderurgic Reșița) and as the Reșița Machine Building Plant (Uzina Constructoare de Mașini Reșița), the latter renamed in 1973 as the Reșița Machine Building Enterprise (Întreprinderea de Construcții de Mașini Reșița). They have played a crucial role in the industrial development both of the region and of Romania as a whole, and their evolution has been largely synonymous with that of their host city.

The Habsburg Monarchy, which then ruled the Banat, was interested in developing extractive metallurgy in the province, and began building furnaces for iron ore smelting in Reșița in 1769, those at Bocşa proving inadequate for its industrial needs. The works trace their origins to July 3, 1771, when the first furnaces and forges were inaugurated, making it the oldest industrial factory in present-day Romania. At first, metalworking was the focus of activity, but machinery manufacturing gradually gained prominence, becoming the main occupation in the last quarter of the 19th century. For decades, the two complemented each other within the same integrated factory. Until 1855, the works belonged to the Treasury of what had become the Austrian Empire, which exercised control through the Banat Mining Directorate in Oraviţa. By 1815, they were producing cast iron pieces coming directly from the furnaces, rods forged from iron, hoops for cart wheels, tools, nails and utensils for agricultural and home use.

In 1855, with the empire facing financial crisis and looking to sell, the works were bought by an international consortium, the Imperial Royal Privileged Austrian State Railway Company (K.u.K Oberprivillegierte Staatseisenbahn Gesellschaft or St.E.G.). Aside from the Reșița works, this company also owned land and mining, metalworking and railway properties in the Banat and Bohemia, a locomotive factory in Vienna and the concession for building and operating a railway network of some 5,000 km, and was financed by one French and two Austrian banks. In the late 1880s, steel produced at Reșița was sent to France to be used in building the Eiffel Tower. Since their opening, the development and fortunes of the works have been deeply entwined with the history of the city itself. An important element of their success was due to their relative self-sufficiency; over time, the works tended to use raw materials and energy sources produced on-site.

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