Umicore

Umicore SA operates as a materials technology and recycling company worldwide. The company operates through Catalysis, Energy & Surface Technologies, and Recycling segments. The Catalysis segment produces automotive catalysts for gasoline, and diesel light and heavy-duty diesel applications; stationary catalysis for industrial emissions control; and precious metals-based compounds and catalysts for use in the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries, as well as fuel cell applications. The Energy & Surface Technologies segment offers cobalt and specialty materials, rechargeable battery materials, and electro-optic materials, as well as metal deposition solutions, including electroplating and PVD coating. The Recycling segment treats waste streams containing precious and other specialty metals from a range of industrial residues and end-of-life materials. This segment also produces precious metals-based materials for glass production, electric, and electronic applications. The company was formerly known as Union Minière du Haut Katanga and changed its name to Umicore SA in 2001. Umicore SA was founded in 1805 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

Colonial origins

The main thread running through much of Umicore's history is the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga , a company incorporated in 1906 to exploit the vast natural resources of the Congo Free State, later the Belgian Congo and now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Initially the UMHK concentrated on mining the state's extensive copper deposits, before diversifying into cobalt, tin, uranium and other precious metals. The company also constructed casting and smelting facilities, eventually growing to such an extent that it represented around half of all revenues taken in by the Congolese government. In early January 1967, the UMHK was nationalized by the regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko, and over $800 million of the company's assets were seized by the state.

After Katanga

The firm suddenly found itself without the vast majority of its business but managed to survive: full ownership passed to conglomerate Société Générale de Belgique, where it was grouped with its other metals and mining interests. As a reflection of its enforced departure from the Katanga Province, the new, simplified name Union Minière was adopted. With its more European focus, Union Minière began to grow its business again through the 1980s, initially largely organically. In 1989 however, Société Générale announced plans to merge Union Minière with three other Belgian metals companies in which it held a significant stake: zinc producer Vieille Montagne ; Metallurgie Hoboken-Overpelt, which dealt in a wide range of metals including copper, cobalt, and lead; and Mechim, an engineering firm. The much enlarged company was initially renamed Acec-Union Minière and subsequently set about streamlining its organisational structure, but the global economic downturn of the early-to-mid-1990s hit profits and forced management to implement a major restructuring programme in 1995. The three-year plan, implemented under the guidance of recently appointed CEO Karel Vinck, involved the loss of around 25% of Union Minière's workforce and the sale of a number of non-core assets, including a zinc wire operation, French roofing material retailer Asturienne and much of the company's exposure to the diamond products sector .

Materials for a better life

Umicore's overriding goal of sustainable value creation is based on an ambition to develop, produce and recycle materials in a way that fulfils its mission.