John Cockerill, formerly Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie (CMI),[1] is a mechanical engineering group headquartered in Seraing, Belgium. It produces machinery for steel plants, industrial heat recovery equipment and boilers, as well as shunting locomotives and military equipment.
History
In 1817, an iron foundry was established in Seraing by John Cockerill and his brother, Charles James Cockerill. As well as creating an iron works, John Cockerill also began machine-building activities, following in the footsteps of his father, William Cockerill, who had made his fortune constructing machines for the textile industry in the Liège region. In 1825, the enterprise became known as John Cockerill & Cie.[2]
The company produced the primary industrial machinery of the day – steam engines, blast furnace blowers, etc. In 1835, the company produced the first Belgian steam locomotive, Le Belge, beginning a tradition of building locomotives for the railways of Belgium. An association with military equipment also began early in the 19th century, building a battleship for the United Kingdom of the Netherlands navy in 1825.[3]