Chemical plant construction Chemnitz
| Chemical plant construction Chemnitz GmbH (CAC)
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1811 |
| Seat | Chemnitz / Germany |
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| Number of employees | 269 (2019) |
| sales | € 52 million (2018) |
| Branch | Plant construction , engineering services |
| Website | www.cac-chem.de |
The chemistry Chemnitz GmbH ( CAC ) is an international company for plant construction and process technology. The company's service portfolio includes all engineering services, from planning to commissioning of plants in the chemical industry. The focus of the business areas is in the following areas: chlor-alkali electrolysis , sulfuric acid , natural gas storage , refinery technology , petrochemicals and natural gas processing . The chemical plant construction has locations in six countries and is headquartered in Chemnitz / Saxony .
history
Company history up to the First World War
Founding of a company during the industrial revolution
On April 19, 1811, Johann Samuel Schwalbe (born March 18, 1778 in Brand ; † July 4, 1845 in Chemnitz) founded the engineering factory "JS Schwalbe" in Chemnitz. With the change from his original carpentry to the construction of spinning and carding machines, Schwalbe showed his feeling for the potential of the emerging mechanical engineering industry. At the beginning of the 19th century, the textile industry in the Chemnitz area was hit by economic upheavals, starting with the industrial revolution in England. Among other things, previously hand-operated systems have been replaced by more advanced machines with other types of drive. Since it was not possible to acquire designs from the motherland of the industrial revolution without fear of massive sanctions, mechanical engineering in Germany developed its own methods and designs for industrial plants. Another political event benefited the Saxon economy. The continental blockade imposed by Napoleon in November 1806 meant that no more goods could be imported from the British Isles into German territory until 1814 - an economic policy decision that gave the domestic textile and mechanical engineering industry a strong boost, as European competition lost its importance massively .
Prior to founding his own company, Schwalbe acquired the necessary mechanical engineering-specific knowledge in various companies in the Chemnitz region. In the early years of the company, due to the lack of specialists in mechanical engineering, he also had to fall back on watchmakers to manage the production. He also benefited from his training as a carpenter - at the beginning of the 19th century, apart from a few small metal parts, machines were made of wood, a material that Johann Samuel Schwalbe knew how to work with. Within a few years, the trained carpenter was able to successfully take stock of his own company and, thanks to the positive economic development, expand his company. This made it necessary to move to a larger domicile three years after the company was founded. The new premises gave the company owner the opportunity to expand his field of work, which is why he expanded his company with his own cotton spinning mill shortly after moving.
In the following years the sales area of the Saxon textile and mechanical engineering industry expanded, and the goods were also delivered beyond local borders. Johann Samuel Schwalbe also benefited from this development and was able to further expand his company in 1828 - this time with a newly built spinning mill, which was powered by water power, in Burkhardtsdorf, south of Chemnitz. Since the company owner could not take care of two workshops at the same time, Schwalbe handed over the management of the new branch to his eldest son Friedrich August. In 1833 the branch was expanded and moved to Gornsdorf, where the Schwalbe family owned their own property.
If you look at the development of the Saxon cotton industry and the spinning trade, you can see a slowed development between 1814, the year when the continental blockade imposed by Napoleon was lifted, and the year 1831. Nevertheless, Schwalbe was able to record stable success with a company that had grown over two decades. In the 1830s, the company owner built further spinning mills and factories and was able to either sell them at a profit or leave them to his three sons Friedrich August, Christian Eduard and Franz Louis to continue. In addition to the expansion measures, Johann Samuel Schwalbe also devoted himself to the refinement of his mechanical systems. He brought more powerful machines onto the market, which were no longer operated by hand, but instead used advanced types of drive such as steam, water or Göpel .
Over time, Johann Samuel Schwalbe was no longer able to cope with the upcoming workload on his own and therefore received more support from his three sons in the 1830s. While the two eldest, Friedrich August and Christian Eduard, were the factory managers of the branches in Gornsdorf and Rochsburg, the youngest, Franz Louis, joined his father's company in 1839. The trained mechanical engineer became part of the Chemnitz company on November 7th, which has operated under the name "JS Schwalbe & Sohn" since that day. In the run-up to the event, the then 25-year-old Franz Louis had received a thorough training and, in addition to practical stays in Italy, expanded his theoretical knowledge at the Technical University in Dresden . After the death of his father on July 4, 1845, Franz Louis managed the mechanical engineering company alone. A year later, “JS Schwalbe & Sohn” moved into new, spacious factory premises in what was then Chemnitz's Angergasse and converted the systems to steam operation.
Political upheavals and their effects
The next few years were accompanied by success for the family company, but the political situation became increasingly difficult in the course of the German Revolution . In Chemnitz, Franz Louis Schwalbe took advantage of the new era and decided to purchase a larger company domicile on today's Fabrikstrasse, in which the spinning plants could now be combined with the mechanical engineering branch. Lines for the production of textiles were added, expanding the existing spinning facilities. In order to make himself independent from economic fluctuations in the cotton industry, the son of the company founder decided to expand his portfolio. At the end of the 1850s, the Schwalbe company began manufacturing machines for the brewery and malting industry . The decision to expand the field of activity benefited the company "JS Schwalbe & Sohn" when the effects of the American Civil War that began in 1861 were also felt in Germany. As a result of the higher raw material prices, many Saxon spinning mills were threatened in their existence. Although "JS Schwalbe & Sohn" also suffered economic losses, it survived the cotton crisis not least thanks to the department that produced brewery equipment. Furthermore, the production of steam engines could be started.
On June 5, 1870, the company owner Franz Louis Schwalbe died after a long lung disease and the next generation, consisting of his sons Bruno, Richard and Emil, took on the continued running of the Chemnitz business. After he returned as a soldier from the Franco-German War in 1870/1871, his fourth son Otto was also accepted into the company and replaced the oldest brother Bruno, who died in 1871 after a long illness.
In adaptation to the current economic situation and the long-term effects of the US cotton crisis, "JS Schwalbe & Sohn" gave up the production branch of spinning machine construction and replaced this department with the manufacture of systems for mills and cement factories as well as turbines and water wheels. In addition, "JS Schwalbe & Sohn" from then on also manufactured steam boilers - in 1872 an iron foundry with an attached metal foundry was put into operation.
The year 1873 marked another important change for the company: In the course of the transformation into a stock corporation , the company name changed to "Maschinenfabrik Germania formerly JS Schwalbe & Sohn". This formal change was accompanied by a further spatial restructuring: The company premises on Fabrikstrasse were expanded to include new production halls, boiler houses and enclosures, and after a year of construction, the modernization was completed in 1873. However, the first decade as a stock corporation was accompanied by times of economic crisis as a result of the founder crash . These were expressed in the weak economy and declining order numbers.
At the beginning of the following decade, day-to-day business at Germania stabilized again, which resulted in an expansion of the foundry, the construction of a new blowroom building and the purchase of larger machine tools. In addition, the machine factory now had a new lathe building and optimized machines for operating the cotton mill. As an additional branch of production, plants for wood grinding shops and cardboard factories were added in 1878. A few years later, the Schwalbe brothers added facilities for the production of ice and cooling machines - initially they worked according to the Osenbrück patent, later according to their own developments. Emil Schwalbe left the management board in 1885, just like his brother Otto almost 10 years earlier, so that Richard Schwalbe continued to run the company as director. In 1895 he initiated the expansion of the company by purchasing a site in Altchemnitz, on which a new boiler forge with siding was built. With this new building, the main factory was able to concentrate more on the manufacture of cooling and steam systems.
Compared to other companies in the textile industry and plant construction, the Germania machine factory survived the weak first years of the 20th century more or less well. The export area continued not only to major cities in Europe, but also to South America as well as Russia , Japan and Australia . The time of the First World War had just as serious an impact on the German economy as a whole as it did on the small-scale development of the Chemnitz machine factory Germania. Efforts were made to continue delivering systems to foreign customers, but with the start of the war in the summer of 1914, German industry also had the task of ensuring deliveries of war equipment, ammunition and weapons.
Between the wars and the Second World War
Difficult post-war times
After the First World War was ended by the Compiègne armistice in November 1918 , attempts were made in the Germania machine factory to return to the usual production processes. As in peacetime, the main focus of the factory workers was on the manufacture of brewery equipment and cooling devices. The deliveries to non-European countries could also be continued - among other things, extensive brewery plants went to Japan.
At the end of 1928, the Chemnitz mechanical engineering company found itself in economic difficulties and was forced to downsize the company. In order to counteract the steadily growing debts, the company's own property was sold to the city of Chemnitz. Germania's production continued at the old location - with the difference that the domicile was now rented and no longer belonged to the machine factory. At the end of the 1920s, however, Germania was not alone with these economic problems because the world economic crisis was looming . From 1930, the Germania machine factory was forced to both reduce working hours and lay off employees. In spite of all adverse circumstances, a purchase agreement was concluded on October 9, 1930, which incorporated the steam engine, compressor and pump construction of the Saxon machine factory, formerly Richard Hartmann AG , into the Germania machine factory. After the official transfer of ownership, Germania received all of the construction documents from the acquired company and thus had a complete department for large machine construction on both the planning and the production side.
Persistent economic problems and political upheaval
In the course of 1931, the economic situation worsened - production at Germania was also further reduced and unemployment figures rose sharply across Germany. The economic decline culminated in 1933 in the seizure of power by the National Socialists. Initially, this political change had a positive effect on the business of Maschinenfabrik Germania. The Chemnitz-based company recorded an increase in orders of 30 percent and the number of employees rose by 38 percent. In addition, 1933 marked the beginning of the production of thread cutting and turret turning machines in the Germania machine factory. The persistent economic problems forced the decision in October 1936 to give up the production of brewery equipment and water turbines. In the future, small machines, ice machines and refrigeration machines were no longer manufactured. This enabled the Germania machine factory to concentrate on expanding the branches that were still in existence. The focus was on the production of steam engines, which the company wanted to refine and further develop by purchasing foreign licenses. While other industrial companies in Germany benefited from the up-and-coming arms and ammunition production, the Germania machine factory did not receive any orders in this area - as a result, the economic development of the traditional Chemnitz company was rather sluggish.
When the day-to-day business of Maschinenfabrik Germania began to stabilize, Germany faced a new situation of upheaval, the Second World War . At the beginning of the war, the Germania machine factory received orders that supported the national armaments industry. In addition, there were projects in the order books that were intended to accelerate the reconstruction after the long-awaited end of the war with the manufacture of machine tools and refrigeration systems. During the Second World War, the Germania machine factory produced machine tools in addition to torpedo air tanks and grenade floors . In order to be able to accomplish the war deliveries in spite of the withdrawn factory workers, other branches of production had to be put on hold. For example, refrigeration systems and compressors were kept to a minimum. However, the most important pillar of ongoing production was machine tool construction. In addition to various models of turret lathes, thread cutting machines and thread cutting heads were also delivered so that series production ran satisfactorily.
The city of Chemnitz was the target of British and American bomb attacks in early March 1945. Before the devastating air raids, the management of the Germania factory relocated a large part of the valuable production machines with freight trains to the west. When the bombs were dropped on Chemnitz, however, the main factory of the Germania machine factory was completely destroyed.
Post-war developments
Difficult years of reconstruction
The catastrophic effects of World War II did not become fully visible until mid-1945. The Germania workforce did clean-up work on the company premises, repaired the remaining machinery and brought about the restarting of production in order to help the company to generate income again as quickly as possible. Initially, the product range was limited to shovels, hoes, trowels, air pumps, grist mills, as well as small parts for mining and similar items made from existing material, as no large-scale systems could be produced for the time being.
A referendum on June 30, 1946 meant that Maschinenfabrik Germania, like more than 1,000 other companies, became public property and continued to exist as VEB Germania. As a result of the agreed reparations payments to the Soviet occupying power, production of the company picked up again in 1947. With the existing machines, Germania was able to implement various orders - for example the production of roller kilns or the manufacture of rotary kilns for the cement industry. Another lucrative manufacturing cycle was guaranteed by the start of refrigerated train production . The finished systems were virtually mobile cold stores, with the entire production process from project planning and construction to the manufacture of the cooling units and other accessories as well as assembly in wagons being in the hands of VEB Germania. The refrigerated train production was a series production that ensured that the company's production activities were fully utilized. Parallel to these developments, the German Democratic Republic was founded on October 7, 1949 . On May 10, 1953, the company name changed again to VEB Germania Karl-Marx-Stadt, when the city of Chemnitz was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt.
Development of the chemical industry in the GDR
At the 1st Chemistry Conference in November 1958, it was decided to found a new branch of industry, chemical plant engineering. This decision also had an impact on the further development of VEB Germania, as production would in future be divided into the two areas of plant construction and apparatus construction. October 1st, 1959 marks the birth of plant engineering at VEB Germania. In the first few years of its activity, this area mainly implemented external projects. However, he was also entrusted with major orders, such as the construction of a fertilizer complex for the oil processing plant in Schwedt and other extensive plant projects in Leuna , Rodleben and Zeitz . In 1968 the plant construction company Karl-Marx-Stadt received its first export order for the delivery of a plant to Novocherkassk in southern Russia.
In addition to plant construction, the work of VEB Germania concentrated on the production of apparatus for the chemical industry. In the course of the 1960s, production in the areas of compressor construction, water turbine construction and water steel construction was reduced to the same extent as the production of machine tools, cooling systems and cooling trains. From then on, VEB Germania Karl-Marx-Stadt produced columns including the necessary fittings as well as pressure and high-pressure equipment, pressure heat exchangers and containers. From 1965, the production portfolio was specialized. The focus was now on the use of materials and welding technology. In 1969, however, Germania's apparatus manufacturing found itself in a crisis. Despite the profits made in plant engineering, the losses in apparatus engineering could not be compensated. For this reason, a solidarity program was launched in which all GDR chemical plant construction companies participated. Thus, under the management of VVB Chemieanlagen, several companies, such as Maschinenfabrik Sangerhausen, MAG Grimma, Chemieanlagenbau Staßfurt as well as chemical plant engineering Rudisleben and tank and apparatus engineering Fürstenwalde, contributed to the fact that VEB Germania Karl-Marx-Stadt got a boost again .
The 1970s were a decade with important and extensive export orders for Germania's plant engineering. In 1974 the company was commissioned to conduct explorations at the Moscow Ministry of the Petroleum Industry. A program for structural development in West Siberia should be developed. Based on the knowledge gained, VEB Germania Karl-Marx-Stadt took over the production of 26 plants for the processing of crude oil. Since the commissioned series production was unusually extensive, the need for an internal investment program became apparent. In the course of these investments, the plant construction in Karl-Marx-Stadt received its own building in the city center of Karl-Marx-Stadt, which from then on housed the entire plant construction. The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1979, and the building was ready for occupancy on October 1st of the following year.
In the mid-1970s, the tradition of brewing equipment production, which had been pushed into the background for several decades, was revived at VEB Germania when inquiries about fermentation and brewing tanks were received from regional breweries. In 1991, container production at VEB Germania was finally stopped.
A new era begins in 1989
Before the political situation in Germany changed from 1989 onwards, more than 300 people were employed under the roof of the plant construction in Karl-Marx-Stadt. The new plant construction building in Augustusburger Strasse in the city center, which was moved into in 1980, was expanded shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall . Despite the exports still being carried out in 1989, the economy was paralyzed and orders were placed less and less. During this time, the plant construction in Karl-Marx-Stadt mainly fulfilled the export contracts concluded before the political upheaval.
In 1989, contact was made with the Frankfurt technology company Lurgi AG . The two companies already knew each other through the joint implementation of a chemical plant in Leuna in the early 1980s. Initially, Lurgi AG supported the plant engineering company in Karl-Marx-Stadt in separating out of the association of the chemical plant construction combine Leipzig-Grimma. For this purpose, VEB Anlagenbau Karl-Marx-Stadt was founded on January 1st, 1990. A little later, two events led to another renaming of the company. On the one hand, the Karl Marx townspeople decided by referendum on April 23, 1990 that their town should in future bear the "old" name of Chemnitz again. On the other hand, in the course of reunification, the market economy was introduced in the former GDR, with the state-owned companies being converted into corporations . In the future the business of the former VEB Anlagenbau Karl-Marx-Stadt ran under the new company name Chemnitzer Anlagenbau GmbH. On June 13, 1991, the retroactive sale and assignment of the business part of Chemnitzer Anlagenbau GmbH to July 1, 1990 from the trust company to Lurgi AG took place. Since that day the company has operated under the name Lurgi Anlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH.
The 2000s
The way into the new millennium began for the Chemnitz plant construction company with some restructuring. October 1st, 1999 marked the transition to Lurgi Life Science GmbH. This strategic business unit arose from the merger of Lurgi Life Science GmbH and the Chemnitz-based Lurgi company and had subsidiaries in Malaysia , the People's Republic of China , the USA and Switzerland . The new company specialized, among other things, in the construction of turnkey systems for the pharmaceutical and food industries .
Despite existing orders between 2000 and 2004, Lurgi AG's large-scale plant construction did not run satisfactorily. Although orders were accepted under the pressure of the corporate management that secured incoming orders, these projects brought losses from the outset. The construction of an active ingredient complex was an immense loss due to unexpected delays, so that the shares of the metal company consequently lost value. At the end of 2003, the plant construction division at the Chemnitz location, which was unprofitable for Lurgi AG, was to be given up. Since no buyers were found, a restructuring including downsizing was planned. In addition, the holding structure should be dissolved so that the individual companies Lurgi Öl-Gas-Chemie GmbH and Lurgi Life Science GmbH merge with the stock corporation. After a four-month negotiation phase , the closure of the Chemnitz location was prevented by a management buy-out . Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH was officially founded on April 1, 2004. A family business was established as had been the case with Johann Samuel Schwalbe and his son Franz Louis almost 200 years earlier, for Joachim Engelmann and his son Jörg have been managing directors and shareholders at the same time since that time.
The plant construction company from Chemnitz expanded just one year after it was re-established. The Wiesbaden company HUGO PETERSEN was integrated as a subsidiary into Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH. With the incorporation of the company founded by Hugo Petersen in Berlin in 1906, a competence center for sulfuric acid technology and gas cleaning was created.
In April 2006 another company enriched the Chemnitz chemical plant construction group. At this point in time, Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH became the main shareholder of BiPro-Tech Sp. Z. oo, based in Krakow. With the takeover of the Polish company, which has been providing services in the field of technological project planning since 2006, the capacities of the group of companies should be expanded.
April 28, 2009 marks the entry of a third subsidiary. On this day, the Chemnitz management took over the Russian company OAO Giproprom Voronezh as the main shareholder. With this integration, the service portfolio was expanded to include construction and steel construction planning, general planning of industrial plants, and auxiliary and ancillary plants. The company closed in 2015.
Business areas
- Chlor-alkali electrolysis
- Sulfuric acid plants
- Natural gas storage
- Refinery technology
- Petrochemicals
- Natural gas processing
Key figures
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
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| Sales in € million 1 | 23.4 | 12.7 | 49.4 | 67.3 | 10.8 | 39.4 | 11.5 | 74.0 |
| Average number of employees at the Chemnitz location |
168 | 186 | 219 | 229 | 233 | 243 | 243 | 245 |
1 The fluctuating sales figures result from the projects that are mostly set up over several years and are typical in the plant construction industry.
Locations
Headquarters Germany
| Chemical plant construction Chemnitz GmbH | Chemnitz, Germany |
Representations abroad
| Representation in Russia | Moscow, Russia | |
| Representation of Kazakhstan | Almaty, Kazakhstan | |
| Representation in Ukraine | Kiev, Ukraine | |
| Representation of Belarus | Minsk, Belarus |
Subsidiaries
| HUGO PETERSEN GmbH | Wiesbaden, Germany | |
| BiProTech Sp. Z oo | Krakow, Poland |
literature
- Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH (Ed.) (2011): 200 years of engineering technology from Chemnitz - company chronicle 1811–2011.