History of the Riva Group

The Riva Group is 100% family-owned and is chaired by its founder Emilio Riva, who manages the business with his sons and nephews. Producing ~14 million tonnes of liquid steel in 2010, the company ranks as the 17th largest steelmaker in the world.

The timeline below covers the history of the firm.

1954: Riva Acciaio founded as a scrap trading firm.
1957: Construction of 1st steelworks named Acciaierie e Ferriere Riva.
1964: Downstream expansion begins from ingots to flat products.
1970: Acquisition of the Tanaro Works and of SEII Works.
1971: Riva assumes management of Spain's Siderurgica Sevillana.
1974: Set up of Associated Steel Industries (ASI) in Canada.
1977: Acquisition of majority control of France's Iton Seine (rebar).
1981: Acquisition of Officine e Fonderie de Galtarossa (OFG).
1988: Riva Group acquires majority control of Sevillana.
1988: Acquisition of Acciaierie di Cornigliano.
1989: Purchase of Gargenville steelworks in France.
1989: Acquisition of Charleroi-Marcinelle rod mill, Belgium.
1991: Purchase of Hennigsdorfer & Brandenburger Elektrostahlwerke.
1995: Purchase of Ilva Laminati Piani from Italian government.
1997: Acquisition of Hellenic Steel in Greece.
1999: Investment in shipping - purchase of Ilva Servizi Marittimi.
2000: Purchase of SAM Group of EAF bar and rod mills from Usinor.
2005: Closure of integrated plant at Ilva Genova Works.
2009: Construction of state-of-the-art HDG facility at Novi Ligure.
2010: Front end modernisation [bloom casting] at Caronno.
2011: Purchase from Edison of two power plants in Taranto.

Notes

Acciaierie e Ferriere Riva was located in Caronno, an industrial area not far from Milan.
1970 acquisitions allowed entry of the Group into long products. SEII denotes Societa Esercizi Impianti Industriali di Malegno - based in Brescia.
1974: The business of ASI was the recovery of auto sector scrap iron.
The rebar producer Iton Seine was adapted to use steel rails as the feedstock for production of reinforcing bar. 1977 acquisition by Riva was of an 80% ownership stake.
1981: The business of OFG was the production of reinforcing bar and of drawing quality wire rod.
Purchase in 1989 of the Charleroi-Marcinelle rod mill was from Belgium's Cockerille-Sambre.
The purchase by Riva in 1995 of Ilva's steel assets made the Riva Group Italy's largest steel company. The purchase also brought Riva control over Tunisacier, a producer of steel plate based in Biserta, Tunisia.
2000: SAM denotes Societe des Aciers d'Armature pour le Beton.
2005 restructuring at Genova works involved closure of the blast furnaces; reorientation to downstream production at Cornigliano.
2009: Novi Ligure HDG line to be fully integrated with Cornigliano, targetting auto-sector sales.

Back to Knowledge Base Index