Skip to main content

Metso’s 150th anniversary

Crushing equipment specialist Metso is now celebrating its 150th anniversary. The firm started in business in 1868 as a local ironworks and the firm has evolved through a series of mergers, acquisitions and divestments. It now has operations in more than 50 countries and a workforce of over 12,000. Metso is a global industrial company providing the world's mining, aggregates, recycling, and process industries with innovative solutions for the sustainable processing and flow of natural resources. During its
September 17, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Crushing equipment specialist 6934 Metso is now celebrating its 150th anniversary. The firm started in business in 1868 as a local ironworks and the firm has evolved through a series of mergers, acquisitions and divestments. It now has operations in more than 50 countries and a workforce of over 12,000. Metso is a global industrial company providing the world's mining, aggregates, recycling, and process industries with innovative solutions for the sustainable processing and flow of natural resources.


During its 150 years, Metso has been in many businesses, ranging from steam engines, locomotives, car manufacturing, forest machines, and pulp and paper machines, to valves, metal and waste recycling equipment, and solutions for rock and mineral crushing and screening.  One of its core areas of expertise today is aggregates and minerals processing: key ingredients for the construction and manufacture of infrastructure.

The first innovations that kicked off mechanical crushing and screening processes in the mines and quarries were introduced in the 1800s. Bruno Nordberg, a Finnish migrant who settled in Michigan in the US, produced some of the first crushing equipment for mines. In 1928, Nordberg acquired the Symons cone crusher technology, an innovation that revolutionised crushing practices in mines and quarries. Bergeaud & Bruno was established in France in 1895 to manufacture crushing equipment, and in Tampere, Finland, Lokomo produced its first jaw crushers at the beginning of the 1920s. These industry pioneers are all key components of our DNA.

The amalgamation of Svedala Industri into Metso in 2001, and the introduction of solutions like primary gyratory crushers, grinding mills and vertical shaft impactors was elemental in the creation of its crushing and screening business.

As part of the celebration the firm is organising an exhibition of photographs showing its history.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • McCloskey developing China market presence
    March 24, 2017
    McCloskey International is developing its presence in the Chinese market with the addition of Shanghai Shibang Machinery (SBM) to its global dealer network. This new addition to McCloskey’s distribution channel will service the Chinese market and SBM recently acquired its first machine from the manufacturer, an S190 Triple Deck Screener. Founded in 1987, SBM is a leading crushing equipment manufacturer in China, with nearly 1,300 employees located in around 16 countries. “McCloskey has a very good rep
  • Major producer of road construction materials
    February 10, 2012
    The Simge Group operates a massive and highly modern quarrying operation close to the Turkish city of Bursan, which provides a major supply of aggregates and asphalt to the country's highway construction sector. This quarry produces around 4 million tonnes/year of crushed limestone and is the largest of the five quarries the Simge Group runs in Turkey, which have a combined output of 12 million tonnes/year. The huge site has an asphalt output of 500,000tonnes/year, again a significant portion of the 1.2 mil
  • Increased asphalt demand - meeting the challenge
    February 8, 2012
    With demand for asphalt predicted to increase, manufacturers are ready to meet the challenge as Patrick Smith reports
  • Keestrack looks to future with company rebrand
    April 12, 2016
    Belgian crushing and screening manufacturer Keestrack, which was started 20 years ago, is looking towards the next 20 years with a complete rebrand. At bauma the company’s owners and managers - Kees Hoogendoorn, president, and his wife Annet - along with family and employees, toasted a new era. It unveiled a new company logo, new nomenclature, and premiered many new machines and model updates across its entire broad-based programme of mobile processing technology.