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S.I.S.M.A.

: : g a l l e r y : :

In Villadossola there were foundries and ironworks since the beginning of the 19th century. In 1892 brothers Vittore and Enrico Ceretti launched a little nuts and bolts activity. Some years later the hand-crafted activity was enlarged to reach an industrial capacity level and it assumed the name S.A. Metallurgica Ossolana. Strategic investments led the factory to became one of the biggest steelworks in Italy in the middle of the 20s. In 1939 the company changed its company name in S.I.S.M.A. (Società Industrie Siderurgiche Meccaniche e Affini - Iron, Steel and Mechanics Industries) and moved the headquarters from Villadossola to Milano.

After the war the plant was rebuilt and highly renovated. This rolling mill was built, in the typical industrial Bauhaus architecture, meanwhile the steelwork was renewed and the forges too. In the 60s, the golden decade, the employee reached the number of 1600 people and steel production was of 300.000 tons/year, using Siemens-Martin process. It was definally on the biggest alpine steelworks.

At the beginning of the 70s Italian steel industry was interested by a heavy conflict between private and state companies. S.I.S.M.A., as many other steel and iron industries, was taken over by a state company called EGAM. This company was founded in 1958 to control the entire Italian mining sector but it remained on the paper until 1971 when it should had to be active. After five years EGAM was dissolved, but this short time was enough to led S.I.S.M.A. into a financial crisis caused by inefficient managing. From 1976 to nowdays, the steelwork lost employee and money, changing a lot of company names and closing many production lines. Today only a little part is still producing steel profiles with 75 workers.

Workers (10s)