Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie: two lines of business and a long history, inextricably linked to that of the industrial revolution…
In 1817, the British businessman John Cockerill begins his industrial activity in Wallonia by supplying weaving looms to wool industry. He rapidly diversifies his activities: blast furnaces, industrial boilers, warships… Passionate about steam machinery, in 1835 Cockerill builds the first working steam locomotive to run on the European continent.
The tone was set. This thirst for innovation has driven the generations of engineers who, for the past two centuries, have been introducing new processes bearing the Cockerill brand onto the market: engine designed by Rudolf Diesel, guns, boat engines, water tube boilers, locomotives, heat recovery steam generators for combined cycle electric power plants, steel galvanising lines, boilers for thermo-solar power plants... From the outset, the ‘Cockerill factories’ have been anticipating trends and playing a determining role in worldwide technological advances.
John Cockerill also laid the foundations of the international vocation of CMI today. A great industrial explorer, he made many visits abroad, always on the lookout for new technologies and new projects. His conquering spirit has thrived through the decades. Thus, in 1890, the ‘Cockerill company’ was involved in the construction of the first major Chinese steelmaking complex, located at Hanyang, designing equipment and assisting the client in raising capital, assembling the installations and training the local workers.
Today, with the benefit of this centuries old understanding of industrial processess, and driven by the conquering and innovative spirit of its founder, the CMI Group continues to design, install, modernise and maintain equipment across the whole world, and to provide its clients and partners with its expertise in international project management.
