Companhia União Fabril

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CUF - Quimicos Industrais
legal form
founding 1865
Seat Porto Salvo , PortugalPortugalPortugal 
management
  • Alexandre Cabral Côrte-Real de Albuquerque
  • João Maria Guimarães José de Mello
sales 296 million euros
Branch chemistry
Website www.cuf.pt
Status: 2015

The Companhia União Fabril (CUF) is a Portuguese chemical company within the Grupo José de Mello .

history

The CUF was founded in 1865 when the concession to manufacture soap, stearin and vegetable oils was acquired. The industrialist Alfredo da Silva (1871-1942) took over the CUF in 1898 and merged it with his company Companhia Aliança Fabril . He subsequently expanded the CUF into a large conglomerate. In 1907, the CUF opened its central production facility in Barreiro , opposite the capital, Lisbon. The Setúbal Peninsula , especially the region known today as Margem Sul , rose to become one of the most important industrial regions of the Iberian Peninsula , especially since the 1940s and 50s .

Since the beginning of the 20th century, fertilizer production has been a major growth driver, with factories in various locations in Portugal (Lisbon, Barreiro, Alferrarede, Soure, Canas de Senhorim and Mirandela). The CUF rose to become the most important private employer in the country with up to 16,000 employees.

CUF factories in Barreiro

In the further course of the group's history, da Silva founded a number of other companies. The Sociedade Geral de Indústria Comércio e Transportes, founded in 1919, was involved in founding the airline TAP Portugal in 1945 . The many CUF companies also included the tobacco product manufacturer Tabaqueira (1927), the bank Banco Totta (1966, since 2004 as Santander Totta part of the Spanish Santander Bank ), the insurance company Império - Companhia de Seguros (1942, merged with Bonança in 2002 , part of Fidelidade since 2013 ), the food producer Compal (1952, merged to Sumol + Compal since 2009 ), the vegetable oil and soap manufacturer SOVENA (1956, today part of the Nutrinveste investment company ), the electrical company EFACEC (founded in 1905, taken over by Silva in 1948 and expanded), the oil and energy company PETROSUL (1972, part of Petrogal since 1976 , now Galp ) and the pulp and paper manufacturer Celbi (1967, part of the Altri holding since 2006 ), the Lisnave shipyard (founded in 1937, 1961 taken over and expanded by the CUF), in addition to a number of other metal, electrical, textile, engineering, logistics, hotel and metal companies, restaurants, car rentals, mines and the like . a. A large number of companies in the Portuguese colonies and initial international investments and participations also belonged to the CUF.

The group reached the peak of its expansion in 1970: with over 110,000 employees in over 100 companies, the CUF generated 5% of the Portuguese gross domestic product .

The Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974 ended the Estado Novo regime. This was followed by the end of the Portuguese colonial wars and the independence of the colonies in 1975, and a reshaping of the Portuguese economy. The CUF was nationalized in 1975 and its divisional companies, partly with other companies in the respective branch, were merged to form state-owned companies.

In 1997, the CUF returned to family ownership in the form of Grupo José de Mello from José Manuel de Mello, grandson of the CUF founder Alfredo da Silva.

In 2016, CUF took over the Solvay plant in Torrelavega (Spain).

activities

Companies

The main production facility of the CUF is today in Estarreja , where a chlor-alkali electrolysis plant is located. Their capacity was doubled in 2010. It also owns the ELNOSA plant in Pontevedra in Galicia in northern Spain .

CUF produces the chlor-alkali products chlorine , hydrochloric acid , caustic soda and sodium hypochlorite as well as aniline , sulfanilic acid , cyclohexanol , cyclohexylamine , nitrobenzene and nitric acid . The company is the most important European manufacturer of aniline.

In addition, aluminum sulfate , aluminum polychloride and stabilized zirconia produced.

The CUF reported a turnover of 296 million euros in 2015, after 351 million euros (2014), 330 million euros (2013) and 321 million euros (2012). It achieved this result with 405 employees (2015), after 410 (2014), 404 (2013) and 402 (2012).

social commitment

Association emblem of DG Fabril do Barreiro

In 1937 the company sports club GD Fabril do Barreiro was founded, which has its home in the Estádio Alfredo da Silva in the municipality of Lavradio .

In 1950, the CUF opened in Almoçageme beach town, community Colares , leisure and rest home "Colónia de Férias da Companhia União Fabril" ( "holiday camp Companhia União Fabril"). It was intended to help the CUF employees relax, but it was also strongly aligned with the educational and political guidelines of the Salazar regime. António Lino, nephew of the architect Raul Lino , managed the facility and designed it into a model village based on the ideas of the Estado Novo.

Premium CUF

Since 2002, the CUF, together with the FCT ( Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia , the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Education) has awarded the Prémio CUF (main prize endowed with € 7,500, further recognition prizes of € 2,500 each). The award is given to academic theses in chemistry and biology that are characterized by a direct reference to applications in Portuguese industry.

Web links

Commons : Companhia União Fabril  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Statutory Bodies
  2. ↑ a b Financial Information
  3. ↑ Annual Report 2015
  4. ↑ CUF ( Memento of October 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Article of December 20, 2004 on the Industrial Museum in Barreiro in the Portuguese daily Público , accessed on October 14, 2016
  6. ↑ a b The history of the CUF on the website of the CUF company Sovena ( Memento from October 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Company history on the CUF website , accessed on October 14, 2016
  8. ↑ a b Article on the history of the CUF Almoçageme rest home , accessed on October 14, 2016
  9. ↑ Miguel Ángel Pérez Jorrín: El comprador de la fábrica de cloro de Solvay mantendrá los 40 empleos. In: El Diario Montañés . September 29, 2016. Retrieved October 14, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Business
  11. ↑ a b Products
  12. ↑ Announcement for the Prémio CUF 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (port.), retrieved as pdf from a website of the University of Minho , accessed on October 14, 2016@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.deb.uminho.pt