US Steel Košice
US Steel Košice (until November 2000 Východoslovenské železiarne , abbreviation VSŽ , East Slovak Steelworks) is a steelworks southwest of the second largest city in Slovakia Košice in the Šaca district . It is one of the largest companies in Slovakia and has almost 15,000 employees (as of 2008).
history
The steelworks was founded on April 1, 1959 as a national company ( národný podnik ) and construction began a year later. The steel mill was supposed to increase the deficient Czechoslovak production of the rolling stock in order to satisfy the growing market. The first blast furnace went into operation in 1965, and the plant was completely completed in 1966. The coal is obtained from the Moravian-Silesian coalfield near Ostrava and the iron ore from the Ukrainian district Krywyj Rih (Krivoi Rog). The ore is transported on the purpose-built, wide-gauge railway line Uzhhorod – Košice .
After the Velvet Revolution , VSŽ was privatized in 1989. In the beginning, a coupon privatization was carried out (various funds = 25%, natural persons = almost 30%, funds of publicly owned assets = 37%). Under the government of Vladimír Mečiar , the Rezeš family got hold of the shares with Mečiar's support; In 1997, she owned almost half of the shares. In 1998 the company was in a serious financial crisis, with debts of 13 billion SKK, and was on the verge of bankruptcy. After the political change in 1998, the Mikuláš Dzurindas government came to power and prepared to sell the company to a strategic investor. The US Steel Corporation finally bought the steel mill on November 24, 2000.
In 2008 the company had a turnover of 3.1 billion euros and a profit of 338 million euros. The annual capacity is 4.5 million tons of the pig iron; In 2008 production was 4.1 million tons.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Consolidated annual report and consolidated financial statements for 2008 (PDF file, 3.42 MB) ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tale of history in the 1960s / 1970s (Slovak)
- ↑ Košické železiarne boli privatizačná lahôdka on hnonline.sk from October 9, 2008 ( 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.
Coordinates: 48 ° 37 '9.5 " N , 21 ° 12' 2.7" E