Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei

Iron ore deposits close to Liezen had been known to exist since the 1200s; mining and smelting took place in the Liezen area till the end of the 19th century. In 1939, the family of industrialists Schmid-Schmidsfelden created a works in Liezen; this was for the war effort and was not intended to be a post-war commercial business. By 1944, 1100 people were working at the plant. In May 1945, the American Allied army had reached Liezen and the plant was closed.[2] In 1945 the facilities included a steelworks and foundry building of over 10,000 m² (110,000 sq ft) and another building of over 7,500 m² (81,000 sq ft) with metal treatment (cleaning, annealing etc.) and mechanical engineering facilities, as well as various outbuildings, offices and power generation facilities.[3]

The plant was nationalised in 1946, becoming Hütte Liezen GesmbH, with a workforce reduced to 350. By the 1950s, employment had risen to nearly 1000 workers; in 1953 due to a difficult economic environment the plant was transferred under lease to the care of VÖEST of Linz for 15 years - the plant's name became VÖEST-Liezen - production synergies between the two plants were optimised - with the Liezen works receiving steel from VÖEST's Linz plant. In 1963, the workforce was approximately 1300.[2]

When VÖEST became VÖEST-Alpine in 1973, the factory became VÖEST-Alpine AG-Werk Liezen. Around that time, the plant's equipment was modernised at a cost of approximately Schilling 350 million.[2]

Noricum Maschinenbau und Handel (1987-9)

In 1986 the company was renamed Noricum Maschinenbau und Handels-GmbH;[2][4] During this period it became the centre of arms-export scandal - the Noricum Scandal; the plant had manufactured the GC-45 howitzer, which was then exported to Iraq and Iran via proxies (at the time of the Iran-Iraq war) - this was in violation of Austria's own arms treaties, and arms export treaties.[5] It ultimately led to the trial and convictions of government officials and politicians for violations of Austria's neutrality act, in addition to others convicted of arms dealing.[6]

In October 1989 the company became an independent entity as Maschinenfabrik Liezen AG, and was sold for the token sum of 1 Schilling to industrialist Emmerich Assmann. The Assmann group became bankrupt in 1993 and after a brief interim ownership by 1994 the Maschinenfabrik Liezen was itself insolvent and was eventually sold to the Haider Group.[2]

After insolvency proceedings the company was restarted as Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei Ges.m.b.H. on 5 December 1994.[1]

In 1996 the mineral processing company (grinding mills and components) Christian Pfeifer Maschinenfabrik was taken over.[7]

In 2004 the company MFL Faserzementanlagen Ges.m.b.H. (Fibre cement manufacturing equipment manufacturer) was formed from the assets of VOITH-FCM; Maschinenfabrik Liezen and ICS - Automation of Switzerland are backers of the company.[8]

In August 2011 the mineral processing (crushing/sorting etc.) company SBM Mineral Processing GmbH of Laakirchen was taken over by MFL's owner 'Group Haider' (Heinrich Obernhuber / Krünes Consulting GmbH.) becoming an associate company of the MFL group.[9]

A rail milling and grinding joint venture Vossloh MFL Rail Milling GmbH, was formed in association with Vossloh AG in 2012.[10]