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

  • IRF kicks off 75th anniversary celebrations in Geneva
    May 5, 2023
    This is a special year for the International Road Federation as it marks the 75th anniversary of its creation.
  • Ma-estro turns quarry operators into skilled Q-PILOTS
    July 3, 2023
    As the adoption of artificial intelligence-based technology sweeps across various industrial sectors, concerns have surfaced about the potential displacement of human labour and professional expertise. In response, Ma-estro is championing AI-driven innovation as a means of bucking the trend, placing people back at the core of the quarrying sector with tools designed to enhance and improve human labour rather than supplant it.
  • Gully and road waste is still overlooked and needlessly sent to landfill
    February 16, 2015
    Road sweepings and gully waste could be recycled, diverting it away from landfill reports *Peter Craven. Highway authorities across Europe have been stockpiling millions of tonnes of rock salt and grit which is destined to be spread onto the road network during the winter months in order to keep them clear. But according to Craven, road sweepings and general gully waste provide a ready source of these materials, as well as delivering significant environmental and financial savings. Road sweepings and gully
  • Mascus celebrates 10th year on-line
    February 28, 2012
    The on-line marketplace for construction machinery, Mascus, is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.