Vitkovice Metallurgical Combine

(full name, K. Gottwald Vitkovice Metallurgical Combine), the largest metallurgical-machine-building combine in Czechoslovakia (city of Ostrava). Operates on coal from the Ostrava-Karvina coalfield and on Slovak and imported ore. Produces cast iron, steel, rolled ferrous and nonferrous metals, pipes, large forgings and castings, bridge structures, and equipment for the metallurgical, mining, cement, and chemical industries. Founded in October 1828 as a metallurgical factory. In 1945 the factory was nationalized and combined with a number of other plants in Ostrava. Several branches of production have often been expanded and modernized with the technical assistance of the USSR, which supplied equipment for the combine.

The Vitkovice Metallurgical Combine has a completed metallurgical cycle. The combine included (1968) 14 enterprises, five of which were located outside of its territory; various auxiliary and test facilities; design offices; and a research institute of the metallurgical industry. In 1968 the combine employed 40,000 industrial, office, and professional workers (25,000-30,000 before World War II). During this period steel smelting increased from 800,000-900,000 tons to 1.5 million tons per year. Approximately one-fourth of the metal produced is used by the combine itself.