International Nickel Company

International Nickel Company (INCO) was created in 1902 from the merger of two prominent nickel companies: Orford Nickel and Copper Company, founded by Robert Thomasin 1878, and Canadian Copper Company, founded by S. J. Ritchie in 1886. Beyond the merger of the two companies, INCO also brought together the mining and refining processes to create more efficient production.

The main competitor with International Nickel Company was Mond Nickel Company, founded by Ludwig Mond in 1900. The creation of Mond NIckel Company precipitated the merger of Orford Nickel and Copper Company and Canadian Copper Company and the creation of International Nickel Company. Ludwig Mond created a way of processing nickel that was very efficient and had planned to sell the process to Canadian Copper Company. An agreement could not be reached and Mund decided to go into business on his own.

Another factor leading to the creation of INCO was the United States' steel industry hesitation at relying on on source of Nickel from Canada. Charles Schwab of US Steel, along with other leaders in the Steel Industry sought the financial backing of J. P. Morgan to force the merger of Orford Nickel and Copper Company and Canadian Copper Company into the International Nickel Company and place its headquarters in New York.

During the First World War, the demand for Nickel was fairly high. After the war ended and the demand fell off, the price of Nickel plummeted, causing INCO to stop mining and refining Nickel in 1921. By late 1922, INCO was able to resume mining and processing Nickel. This was result of INCO president, Robert Crooks Stanley's effort to find civil uses for nickel. Stanley first pushed the use of nickel in automobile manufacture Then in 1922, he invested in a rolling mine in West Virigina, which was primarily designed to manufacture monel.

In 1929, INCO went through another merger. Both Mond Nickel Company and INCO owned parts of the Frood Nickel deposit in Ontario. Both companies decided that it would be more advantageous for them to merge than to fight over this large nickel deposit. These two companies became the International Nickel Company of Canada Ltd, but still used the nickname INCO.

INCO fared well through the Depression and into World War Two. The war created a demand for nickel, just as it had in WWI. INCO was the primary supplier of Nickel and provided it to both the Americans and the Germans, which cause a great deal of controversy. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, the refining process for Nickel had improved, making stainless steel possible for kitchen appliances and other uses. As a result of this and the outbreak of the Korean War, nickel was in great demand and INCO began to have difficulty meeting this demand. Other companies entered the nickel industry and INCO's place as one of the foremost nickel producers and suppliers began to diminish. As of 2002, the company still existed but in a limited capacity under the name "VALE-INCO".

Products

 * Monel