What is "tsentrolit"

Tsentrolit is one of the largest foundries in the Republic of Belarus.

It was decided by the Order of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus and the Council of Ministers of BSSR to build a specialized plant under the project, developed by the Kiev institute "Hyprokhimmash", for production of iron casting for machine tools and mechanical engineering. The construction started in 1963, and in 1965 the first products were manufactured in the premises of the commissioned mechanical repair shop – non-standard equipment for the further development of the own production. The first melting was carried out on the 24th of October 1968. That date is the foundation date of the plant.

At that time Tsentrolit belonged to the system of Minstankoprom (Ministry of machine tools industry) of the USSR, which included nine more Tsentrolit plants in various corners of the Soviet Union.

At present many of the Tsentrolit plants either have ceased to exist or have been operating as foundry shops or small works due to difficult financial situation. Gomel Tsentrolit has managed to save its production infrastructure.