History of Machine Building Industry

The chapter is structured in four parts. In the first part, the beginning of industrialization in Romania is presented. The industrialization of Romania begins in the first part of the eighteenth century, when the demand for mineral resources (coal and iron) of the western European countries increased considerably. These resources began to be exploited in the “Banatul Montan” area, where the first furnaces appeared. Later these were extended to other areas of Transylvania. If initially the production was predominantly focused on the metallurgical sector, starting from the second part of the nineteenth century it was expanded in the field of machine construction (household and agricultural tools, cast iron objects, locomotives, etc.). The second part presents the development of the machine industry in the period between the two world wars. The formation of Greater Romania, after the First World War, strongly boosted the development of Romanian industry, especially by supporting domestic capital. During this period, the first Romanian entrepreneurs appeared who strongly developed the metallurgical, railways, armaments, and aviation industries. The third part of the chapter analyzes the development of the machine industry after 1945 until 1989. After the Second World War, the political reality changes completely through the change of the political regime and the entry of Romania into the Soviet occupation zone. During this period, part of the Romanian industry is abolished (the aeronautical industry, armament industry) and the industry of agricultural machines, energy equipment, transport equipments, consumer goods, textile equipment, etc. is developed. From the 1960s until the beginning of the 1980s, a strong industrialization took place throughout Romania, trying to cover all the industrial needs of the country. After 1989, with the fall of the communist regime, the machine industry was affected by several major events: the transformation of state enterprises into commercial companies; the privatization of commercial companies; the decline of the export market to former communist countries, Arab countries and African countries; globalization, through the emergence and development of subsidiaries of large international companies; the opening of borders to foreign products; the rapid increase in interest rates. These events led to crucial changes in the Romanian industry, the context in which the new enterprises operated being completely changed compared to the one before 1989. The reindustrialization of Romania after 1989 occurred mainly through two mechanisms: the first, through the purchase, restructuring and re-engineering Romanian enterprises by the big players on the world market or by Romanian investors with an entrepreneurial spirit; the second, by setting up enterprises of foreign companies in locations with skilled labor or in geographical areas with a surplus of (cheap) labor that do not require a high qualification. At the end of the chapter, a panoply of research and design institutes in the field as well as higher technical education institutions in the field of machine construction technologies is presented.