History of KME France

Created as Tréfimétaux in the 60s of the last century, since 1987 it has been part of KME Group and from 1 May 2007 has been named KME France; the integration of its activities with those of the group is total.

1962

Birth of Tréfimétaux through the merging of the "Compagnie Française des Métaux" (created in 1892) and the "Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre" (created in 1907).    

1967

Take-over merger of Tréfimétaux by Péchiney, who regrouped its copper activities (8% of Péchiney's activity).

1975-80

Tréfimétaux reorganises around mechanical products, selling off of activities no longer in synergy with the company's strategy (notably the sale of "cable" activity to Pirelli in 1980).

1980-87

Restructuring of Tréfimétaux: investments in order to improve productivity and reliability, with a reduction in the workforce: from 6000 to 2500 employees (important redundancy programmes). Closure of sites: le Havre, Dives sur Mer. 

1987

Péchiney sells Tréfimétaux to the Italian company SMI, which operates in copper processing via its Italian subsidiary Europa Metalli. This union translated into the creation of an European industrial ensemble for copper processing. Launch of an investment plan for Tréfimétaux: 100 million francs per year.

1989

The company Cuivre et Alliages subsidiary since 1987, becomes a division of Tréfimétaux.

1991

Tréfimétaux reorganises its rolled products division and regroups its French distribution activities..

1993

A management system common to Europa Metalli and to Tréfimétaux is set up based on the creation of operational sectors of homogeneous activity (tubes, brass and copper rods and rolled products).

1995

Tréfimétaux S.A. (France), Europa Metalli S.p.A. (Italy) and KM-kabelmetal AG (Germany), three long-standing companies in the European copper industry, merged to form KME, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SMI.

1999

SMI begins the operation of capital increase in KME AG.

2003

SMI owns 100 % of KME

2005

The Group’s manufacture of rods is separated into individual companies. The name of the French Company is Tréfimétaux Brass SAS.

2006

Financial holding SMI is renamed as  KME Group S.p.A. .

2007

KME Group SpA adopt the single brand name of KME® in order to fully integrate all the subsidiary companies. Consequently from the 1st May 2007, Tréfimétaux S.A. is named KME France S.A.S.