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SALEM -- CMI Group and CMI Industry Americas celebrated their rich histories this past week, but the Salem plant is looking to the future, too, announcing plans to hire 15 or more additional employees between now and 2018.
"We're expanding due to some contracts that the company just secured," Human Resources Regional Manager USA Tricia Myers of the Salem plant said.
The positions vary from shop workers to electrical, mechanical and process engineers, which she affirmed are all good-paying jobs. Potential employees can apply online at the company website at cmigroupe.com in the coming week.
"CMI has a serious commitment to having an entity in the United States that specializes in furnace design and assembly," she said.
CMI Group, headquartered in Seraing, Belgium, marked its bicentennial this year with a series of events with employees worldwide, the latest being held this past Wednesday at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. A majority of the workforce at CMI Industry Americas in Salem, which employs 50 workers at the plant on West Wilson Street, planned to attend the gala.
CMI stands for Cockerill, Maintenance & Ingenierie, a company founded in 1817 by industrialist John Cockerill in Belgium. According to a press release issued by CMI Industry Americas, the local company was founded in 1911 by Thaddeus F. Bailey in Alliance as Bailey Electric Furnace Company, then moved to Salem in 1923 after being sold to Frank T. Cope, with Cope's electric furnace and heating grid designs still in use today. The release said the company continued to expand as the Electric Furnace Company Incorporated, joining CMI Group in 2005 as part of the CMI Industry sector.
"The enterprise has provided more than 6,000 furnaces and a broad range of services to customers worldwide," the release said.
According to Myers, the Salem company has employees with more than 40 years on the job, including one with 47 years and one with 44 years. The local company is headed by manager Frederic Martin. Through diversification, the CMI Group has sustained its success over the course of its 200-year history, now operating in more than 20 countries with business sectors in energy, industry, defense, industrial services, and the environment.
A description of CMI Industry Americas in Salem said the plant "provides the steel and non-ferrous metals industries with the latest technologies and services related to cold rolling mills, processing lines and chemical and thermal treatment installations. It also supplies and modernizes heat treatment furnaces for the forging and casting industry, as well as surface treatment lines for all types of applications, and hydrometallurgical processes for the extraction of ores."
Other locations in the United States in other sectors include CMI Environment America in Illinois and CMI Energy in Erie, Pa. The release said CMI Energy is a "world leader in the design and supply of heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), while its sister division in Europe also provides thermal solar receivers, boilers for FLNG (Floating Liquefied Natural Gas), and industrial boilers." CMI Environment "offers innovative and made-to-order environmental solutions within 4 domains of expertise: water, air, waste, and energy efficiency. Its offerings pertain to industrial and municipal water treatment; preventive and curative treatment solutions for industrial and tertiary-sector water; treatment of corrosive, harmful and odorous gas emissions; waste treatment via multiple and single hearth ovens; and energy efficiency solutions."
His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium visited CMI Group at the Seraing Chateau in Belgium last May as part of the bicentennial worldwide celebrations. The release said "the visit applauded CMI Group for what it has become today: a world leader in products and services in the domains of energy, defense, industry, and the environment, with over 4,600 employees across the globe."
Bernard Serin, the chairman and managing director of CMI, has been traveling the world to celebrate the bicentennial with employees, including in Pittsburgh.
In a statement shared in the release he said, "From John Cockerill to CMI, this is a fine story! When he located in the Seraing Chateau in 1817, John Cockerill probably did not imagine what an incredible adventure he was setting in motion. A true pioneer in the mastery of steam, he founded the Cockerill company, and through this laid the base for the industrial revolution in Europe. This bicentennial enables us to pay homage to those who went before us, and to an industrial and technological adventure which has continually carried the Group toward excellence. Our company has traversed turbulent and exiting times, and had to master several crises, but it has always been able to reinvent itself by offering responses to the challenges of each era. Being one of the most recent inheritors of John Cockerill brings with it the responsibility of passing on this industrial heritage. As such, it is with immense pleasure and pride that we share the celebrations of the bicentennial with our clients, with local organizations, and, of course, with the CMI community."