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Strojmetal: From copper to aluminum
Strojmetal Aluminium Forging is a traditional Czech manufacturer of forgings made of aluminum alloys. The company continues the two-hundred-year tradition of the original copper smelter in Kamenice and is currently expanding production capacities. It is a longestablished supplier of parts for the automotive industry. Since it focuses on aluminum parts, it expects significant growth in demand in the coming years.
The history of the firm dates back to 1822, so next year Strojmetal Aluminium Forging will celebrate its 200th anniversary. This makes it one of the oldest industrial and engineering companies in the Czech Republic. During this entire period, it has been operating at the same place – in Kamenice near Prague in Central Bohemia, where the original copper smelter was founded by Josef Ringhoffer. He started his business in Kamenice in 1817, when he put his copper workshop into operation in place of an old mill. However, the industrial tradition in Kamenice is generally considered to date back to 1822, when Ringhoffer opened a copper mill. He bought the old mill and began to gradually develop it. Another crucial point in the development of the firm was the authorization to produce copper and other metal goods, which Ringhoffer acquired in 1843. At that time, the sugar, beer and distillery industries were booming in the Czech Republic, so Ringhoffer supplied them, and the company became a factory.
Industrial empire
František Ringhoffer II. took over the business after his father, who built the entire industrial empire, an integral part of which was the operation in Kamenice. Over the years, the establishment had been managed by generations of Ringhoffers and the industrial empire became a joint-stock company. At one point, even the Tatra car manufacturer was part of this group. In 1931, František Ringhoffer IV founded a golf club in Štiřín, just a few kilometers away, and became the first president of the Golf Association of Czechoslovakia. However, the Ringhoffer family lost their empire during the Second World War, and the plant has since gone its own way. In 1940, it started to produce forgings made of aluminum alloys and in 1945 the firm was nationalized. In 1968 it was renamed Strojmetal Kamenice, now a familiar name. At that time, it served the aerospace and military industries.
A new fence and research into the park by an arborist are planned in the near future around the chateau
Photo: Barbora Mráčková
The Strojmetal Development Centre became the Building of the Year in the Central Bohemian Region
Photo: Barbora Mráčková
From privatization to MTX Group
Strojmetal flourished again after the Velvet Revolution. In 1998, it was privatized and subsequently, in cooperation with German partners, started focusing on aluminum forgings for the automotive industry. And although it also supplies other sectors, the automotive industry is still its main customer today. In the following years, Strojmetal became a member of MTX Group, which is working on further developing the firm. For example, the company is gradually moving away from semi-finished products and is focusing on finished products. MTX Group has already invested more than a billion Czech crowns in Strojmetal, and further investments worth more than a billion Czech crowns are planned for the coming months and years. Part of the firm’s new development strategy is the new forging line in Kamenice and the expansion of production to a completely new plant in Bruntál in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Because of the limited development possibilities in Kamenice (the plant is located in a valley and has nowhere to expand), MTX Group decided to build additional forging lines and a new machining plant in Bruntál. Work on it began this year.
