Our history

1910s – DONUARD KUSCHAKOFF ESTABLISHES THE COMPANY

It all started in Vyborg, still part of Finland in 1914 when the 25-year-old Donuard Kuschakoff established Karjalan Lumppu- ja Romuliike (Karelian Rag and Scrap Company).

He collected scrap iron, other metals, and fabrics with the purpose of sorting and refining them for industrial use. The operation was initially very small, but war connections, perseverance, and hard work slowly stabilised the business.

The start of the First World War in 1914 restricted the availability of the usual raw materials, and true scarcity was in sight towards the war’s end in 1916–1918. As the regular raw materials grew scarce, the demand for scrap metal and waste fabrics increased. Everything that could be collected was sold.

As he expanded, Donuard quickly organised the processing and sale of waste materials. Waste fabrics were primarily bought from ragpickers, who travelled on horse carts around the countryside and towns.

1920s – RAPID DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH

After the First World War, the industrialised world experienced a post-war economic boom. In Finland, the entire 1920s were a time of rapid development and growth, which benefited Karjalan Lumppu- ja Romuliike.

Waste fabrics were bought from ragpickers and industry. The collected material was sorted and processed according to quality, colour and so on. The sorted fabrics were then sold for use in the clothing, roofing felt, and paper industries. Old fur coats were stripped of their wool, which was sold to spinning mills. Flock, a type of stuffing for soft furnishings, was produced by a mechanical process. Burlap sacks were used to make filler for ships, barges and houses.

At first, scrap processing was a minor business for the young company. Scrap like axles, pulleys and cartwheels was collected in a warehouse and processed for sale to industry, blacksmiths and farmers. Metal was separated from the scrap by hand at the time. Flame cutting could be used to chop up the scrap.

1930s – DONUARD PREDICTS THE FUTURE

Contrary to other areas of business, the Great Depression did not reduce the sales volume of Karjalan Lumppu- ja Romuliike. The same thing happened that had occurred during the First World War: everything was in demand, and rags and scrap iron sold well.

In Finland, it was common practice in the 1930s to Finnicise your name. Donuard did just that in 1934, changing his family name to Kuusakoski.

In the 1930s, Donuard Kuusakoski’s business expanded significantly. The former rag and scrap salesman had become a notable businessman who wanted to grow beyond Vyborg and Eastern Finland.

Donuard met Oscar Moser from Helsinki, the owner of Oy Oscar W. Moser Ab, a wholesaler of non-ferrous metals, and a textile refining business, also in Helsinki.

In 1938, Donuard and his friend and associate from Vyborg, Edward Himanen, bought equal shares in Moser’s company, becoming majority shareholders. Donuard Kuusakoski moved to Helsinki to head the new company and appointed his oldest son, Victor Kuusakoski, the director of Karjalan Lumppu- ja Romuliike.

Before the decade was over and prior to war, Oscar Moser sold his remaining shares to Donuard Kuusakoski and Edward Himanen. Himanen took charge of the textiles business and Kuusakoski managed the metals.

1940s – ADJUSTMENTS IN WARTIME

The Winter War put a stop to Karjalan Lumppu- ja Romuliike in Vyborg, and its operations were moved to Helsinki. The company was followed by many of its workers from Vyborg.

The death of Donuard Kuusakoski, the founder of what was to become today’s Kuusakoski Oy, was a heavy blow to the company to in 1946, immediately after the end of WW2.

The collaboration with Edward Himanen continued, and Donuard had already delegated responsibilities to his sons Victor and Rafael. The sons took up their father’s work.

The war had left a surplus of scrap metal, and Finland’s warplanes, which the Paris Peace Treaties had ordered to be scrapped, were handed over to Kuusakoski. This was a considerable source of material for the company and provided the impetus for the planning of an aluminium smelting plant.

1950s – VICTOR AND RAFAEL CONTINUE AND IMPROVE ON THEIR FATHER’S WORK

Costs increased after the war as rationing was slowly rolled back. This made Finnish products less competitive. At the start of the 1950s, the economic expansion brought on by the Korean War saved the metal and wood refining industries as prices began to climb. The metal industry’s exports to the Soviet Union grew in particular.

Oscar Moser, the old business partner to the Kuusakoski family, wished to finally retire at the end of the 1950s and sell the rest of his holdings. The Kuusakoski family bought his shares, and Victor Kuusakoski became the head of Oy Moser Ab.

Larger facilities were required for growing industrial operations and to house new machinery, such as a Morgan furnace for copper processing and the Ponzen 2000, an aluminium smelting and refining plant, which included a rotary furnace, pre-smelting furnace, converter and casting machine.

1960s – KUUSAKOSKI OY

The name Oy Moser Ab was a poor fit for the company’s new ownership, so the company was renamed Kuusakoski Oy.

The entire 1960s were a period of rapid growth. Kuusakoski Oy focused more on its speciality, aluminium refining, including research and development.

The company’s laboratory in Kauklahti grew into one of Finland’s most skilled metal alloy analysis units.

Kuusakoski Oy reached a great milestone with its first major export contract with Volkswagen, one of the world’s largest car manufacturers. Volkswagen’s quality requirements for its raw materials were and remain some of the world’s strictest. This granted Kuusakoski Oy an “official” seal of quality.

1970s – DOMESTIC EXPANSION AND MAJOR INVESTMENT IN HEINOLA

As Finland entered the 1970s, there was now a need to scrap automobiles. Because of vigorous motorisation, junk cars were piling up in landfills and causing environmental damage.

Working with the steel industry, Kuusakoski Oy found a suitable location for a car crushing plant in the rural municipality of Heinola close to the Myllyoja railway station. Car crushing equipment manufactured by the German company Lindeman, the first of its kind in Finland, was erected in Heinola in 1972.

The car crushing plant started the company’s expansion in Heinola and was followed by an aluminium smelting plant.

The company expanded quickly in Heinola while investing in new technology. New methods in the 1970s and 80s included dross processing, chip drying, sink-float tanks, melting point sorting and a specialised crusher. Environmental issues were also addressed in Heinola. Kuusakoski was one of the first companies to install flue gas scrubbers. Heinola received its equipment as early as 1976.

Thanks to the new technological solutions, the production facility in Heinola developed into one of the world’s most versatile scrapyards in the first ten years of its operation.

1980s – INTERNATIONALISATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY

In the 1980s, Kuusakoski understood the requirements of the new era. As was the case with Vyborg in the early days, Finland had now become too small for the company. The company continued to develop its domestic purchasing organisation and started aggressive expansion in Finland and abroad.

The first foreign company acquisition took place in Norway, when Kuusakoski Oy bought a majority stake in Aluminiumsmelteriet A/S.

Kuusakoski continued to expand globally throughout the 80s. It had subsidiaries in the USA, Europe, Russia and South East Asia. The Kuusakoski group has retained its global raw material purchasing and production marketing network to this day.

New ground was broken in the design and sales of scrap metal recycling technology. Kuusakoski Engineering began delivering modern integrated scrap metal salvaging plants to customers on a turnkey basis, designed for both commercial interests and environmental requirements.

1990s – STRONG INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION CONTINUES

At the turn of the 1990s, Kuusakoski began to expand towards the east. Kuusakoski envisioned great potential for recycling in Russia. The first joint enterprise was founded in Petrozavodsk in 1991. This was followed in 1993 by operations in St Petersburg and once again in Vyborg.

The Baltic countries also became an important new region for developing metal recycling. The material volumes for electrical and electronic devices were growing, and the company began active research into their recycling solutions.

2000s – KEY PLAYER IN ESTABLISHING THE PRODUCER LIABILITY SYSTEM FOR ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT

As the 2000s dawned, Kuusakoski was still expanding and buying up companies for electrical and electronic equipment recycling. The amount of electronics in homes was growing, and the company prepared itself for a producer liability system in Finland, Sweden and the Baltic countries.

The European Union’s WEEE Directive was passed in 2003, and Finland implemented the EU recycling directive in 2005. Kuusakoski played an important role in building the national system.

In 2009, Kuusakoski started a joint venture in Philadelphia in the United States, specialising in electrical and electronic equipment recycling.

2010s – SIZABLE INVESTMENTS IN MATERIALS PROCESSING AND RESEARCH WITH MORE JOINT VENTURES

In 2010, Kuusakoski added SWEEEP Kuusakoski to its recycling business, a joint venture that is one of the United Kingdom’s leading recyclers of electrical and electronic equipment. To bolster its position on the US electronics recycling market, Kuusakoski started a joint venture in 2011 with Vintage Tech Recyclers, an award-winning electronics recycling specialist.

Kuusakoski invested in a modern industrial-size recycling plant in Lahti, which started operations as Ekopark Lahti in 2012. The total investment was 23 million euros – the company’s largest in ten years. The plant produces fuel for Lahti Energia’s power plant.

In 2013, Ekopark Lahti was supplemented by an extensive research and development centre that conducts its own research and cooperates widely with universities, among other partners. By building its own research centre, Kuusakoski improved its competitiveness in the marketplace as one of the world’s leading recycling companies.

Towards the end of the decade, Kuusakoski invested heavily in materials processing, a new aluminium smelting furnace, and an enrichment and reject refining plant in Heinola. The new, state-of-the-art aluminium smelting furnace was completed in 2018, and it significantly reduced the consumption of salt and energy compared to the rotary furnace. This also reduced the amount of salt slag that is generated as a side product in aluminium smelting. The new furnace is also more effective at refining low-quality and mixed aluminium scrap.

Construction of an enrichment and reject refining plant started in 2018. Once completed, it would be able to recover and refine nearly all metal from the crushing process’ residual waste stream, i.e. rejects. The total investment was approximately 14 million euros.

2020s – AIMING TO BE THE PREFERRED PARTNER FOR CUSTOMERS IN RECYCLING SERVICES AND BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY 

In the 2020s, Kuusakoski has systematically invested in the development of recycling processes. At the beginning of the decade, a unique reject refining plant was launched, with processes that recover metals from the residual waste from the crushing process, or rejects, which until then had been hazardous waste in the industry.

In autumn 2022, the company announced a major green investment programme to increase capacity, improve material recovery and provide purer recycled raw materials. The first milestone of the programme was reached when the new Copper Centre started operations in spring 2023. The plant produces around 40 tonnes of copper per week, enough to supply the automotive industry with around 500 electric cars. The company also announced a widely publicised plan to build the first carbon-free steel recycling plant in Veitsiluoto, Kemi.

2024 is the company's 110th anniversary year. Our aim is to be the preferred partner of our customers in recycling services and business sustainability. Today, Kuusakoski sources recycled materials from Scandinavia, the Baltics, the UK and the USA, and the Recycling Group employs more than 1000 people. We are a pioneer in the circular economy and a family-owned company, whose strength today is still based on skilled staff, material, recycling and environmental technology.