The story
Founded by Sam Eyde on Jan 2, 1904.1
Elkem was founded in 1904 by the industrial entrepreneur Sam Eyde (1866 – 1940) as Det Norske Aktieselskab for elektro-kemisk Industri (Elektrokemisk). The company was established with funding from the prominent Wallenberg family and Knut Tillberg.
In 1917 a ferroalloy plant was acquired and Elkem started production of the Söderberg electrode.
In 1972, the company merged with Christiania Spigerverk, also becoming a producer of steel.
Between 1981 and 1984 Elkem acquired Union Carbide plants in Norway and North America and in 1986 the plants at Thamshavn and Bjølvefossen.
In the 2000s Elkem had acquired Icelandic Alloy, Remi Claeys Aluminium and Sapa.
In January 2005, Orkla bought a controlling stake in the company.
In 2006, Elkem closed its Meraker plant, which it had bought from Union Carbide in 1981, causing around 100 employees to lose their jobs.
In January 2011, Elkem was sold by Orkla to China National Bluestar for $2 billion.
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In 2018, the company became listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
As stated in its annual report from 2024, the company had more than 7,200 employees at 31 production sites, and a revenue of 33 billion NOK. China National Bluestar (52.91%) is the largest shareholder, ahead of Folketrygdfondet (4.28%) and Must Invest (3.07%).
From Wikipedia’s article on Elkem, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5