https://doi.org/10.15255/KUI.2021.018
Published: Kem. Ind. 70 (9-10) (2021) 563–580
Paper reference number: KUI-18/2021
Paper type: Review / History of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
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Sisak Ironworks Metallurgical Combine

M. Gojić

Abstract

The Sisak Ironworks Metallurgical Combine arose from the former Caprag Smelter (1938). The technological process of Sisak Ironworks had characteristics of integrated ironworks, including mass production of coke, pig iron, and crude steel, as well as rolled semi-finished and finished products, along with its own significant metalworking industry. The primary, and globally recognized, products of Sisak Ironworks were welded and seamless pipes. Sisak Ironworks was characterized by continuous reconstruction and modernization with the desire to expand the product range and improve the quality system of final products. Sisak Ironworks gained 16th place out of the 200 largest companies in former Yugoslavia according to journal „Ekonomska politika“ in 1986. Sisak Ironworks was the largest metallurgical company in the Republic of Croatia, and the third (after Zenica Ironworks and Associated Slovenian Ironworks), and the only producer of seamless pipes in former Yugoslavia. Sisak Ironworks was of great significance for today’s Sisak-Moslavina County, because in 1978, for example, more than 90 % of the total revenue came from the ironworks, and at the end of 1989, it employed 13,992 workers and produced around 2.07 million tons of metallurgical products (coke, pig iron, crude steel, pipes etc.). Sisak Ironworks always nurtured solidarity; after World War II, it built more than 3,600 apartments, and approved over 4,000 loans for individual construction of houses, participated in the co-financing of numerous infractructural and communal projects, educational, cultural, sports-recreational, and other activities etc. The City of Sisak is not the same without the Sisak Ironworks, which we are still witnessing today. The development of the Sisak Ironworks improved the social and cultural life of Sisak and contributed to its urbanization. In 1939, at the time of the opening of the Caprag Smelter (the forerunner of Sisak Ironworks), the population of Sisak was 12,920, and in 1971, about 40,000, while in 1991, the city of Sisak had 45,992 inhabitants. There has always been a symbiosis between the metallurgical industry and the city of Sisak. Unfortunately, the Sisak Ironworks disappeared a long time ago due to several reasons (war afflictions, three unsuccessful privatizations, negligence of the relevant state institutions, etc.), so that the metallurgical production of the remains of the original Ironworks in 2019 had reduced to crude steel production (69 kt) to the level between 1955 (46.9 kt) and 1956 (82.5 kt).

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Keywords

metallurgy, Sisak Ironworks, pig iron, steel, welded and seamless pipes