‘Outokumpu’ is a Finnish word that translates roughly as ‘mystic hill’. It is also the name of a town in Eastern Finland where rich copper ore deposits were discovered in 1910.
Outokumpu has a rich tradition in metals, and the company has been instrumental in developing the stainless steel industry into what it is today. Indeed the Group’s history is as old as that of stainless steel itself, dating back a century to Germany and the UK where stainless steel was invented more or less simultaneously in the beginning of the 1900s. Some years later, duplex stainless steel was invented in Sweden. The early research in these three countries marked the beginnings of Outokumpu’s stainless steel business.
Over the years Outokumpu has evolved from a mining and multi-metal company into the global leader in stainless steel. Outokumpu as it is known today was formed through the acquisition of Avesta Sheffield in 2001 and Inoxum, the stainless steel arm of ThyssenKrupp, in 2012.