The steel making in Koroska (Carinthia) has its roots, in antiquity: the Romans had high praise for Noris (i.e. Koroska iron). The beginnings of the production of steel in Ravne go back to the 14th century, while the year 1620 is documented as the year in which the first ironworks were built in Crna na Koroskem. Their later owners, the counts of Thurn, joined the ironworks in Crna, Mezica and Ravne into one company. They named it the Ravne Steelworks Jurij the Count of Thurn and the year of the prosperity of the first ironworks in Crna was preserved in its name until this century, when of all the ironworks only the Ravne Steelworks continued operating.
In the 19th century, Thurn's steels received many awards at international exhibitions and were sold all over Europe from France to Russia, even to China. Effort for modernisation of devices, quality of products and a wide product range contributed to the overcoming of a major crisis at the end of the 19th century, a crisis which destroyed the majority of ironworks in Koroska.

The Ravne Steelworks was, however, affected by World War I when the production was performed mainly for the Austrian army and thus they had great financial difficulties at the end of the war. They solved them by joining the Bohler company which meant the end of its independence. During World War II they worked for the German war industry. After the end socialist Yugoslavia in which industrialisation was one of the basic goals, needed a lot of steel and steel products. The true ascent of the Ravne Steelworks began in the middle of 1945.
The Steelworks expanded in cycles of five-year plans. As a rule, during one cycle they invested into new plants and equipment, during the next they worked intensively on acquired capacities after which investments took place simultaneously with work. Thus they gradually rebuilt all facilities from the steel foundry and ironworks to the forge and rolling mill, and built a mechanical processing facility. The new characteristic of Ravne was that parallel to steel production they were consistently concerned about steel processing development.

Production grew every year, the factory expanded, the number of emplayees increased and the town grew, until 1952 it was still a market town called Gustanj, and since then it has been the town of Ravne na Koroskem.
At the time of their first peak, in 1913 the Ravne Steelworks achieved a production of 10 354 tons; in 1950 they produced 12 731 tons of raw steel and in 1968 the production was 101 300 tons. In 1946 the, steelworks had 622 employees and in 1969 there were 3400.
In 1969 the company was merged with Jesenice and Store steelworks into the company Slovenian Steelworks (Slovenske Zelezarne). Due to the conjunction of circumstances greater attention was paid to the development of mechanical processing, and the company crossed municipal and national borders. Over the next decade the companies TRO Prevalje, Kovinarstvo Ljubno, Armature Muta and Bratstvo Varvarin joined the company and in 1986 also Monter Dravograd.
At that time the production reached its peak. Aproximately 7000 employees produced 237 000 tons of raw steel. The entire company was new or renevated. The ESU process enabled the production of ingots weighing up to 36 tons with a diameter of up to 1000 mm. The introduction of ladle metallurgy with vacuum oxidation and blowing of argon onto the melt increased production capacities to 260 000 tons per year. Computer control of melting procedure ensured stable quality and conisiderable savings. The GFM forging line increased capacity, improved quality and working conditions. Production consists of rolled steel, forgings, steel casts; cold forged steel rods and extruded iron wire. The most modern methods were used for quality control.

The Ravne Steelworks products are used in industries ranging from heavy industry to food service, and especially in ship construction, equipment for heavy industry, equipment and tools for the production of pipes and other profiles, equiprnent for oil drilling, dies forges; etc. Substantial part of production is sold to foreign markets. Part of this success is related to organize personel policy. In their own Metallurgical Industrial School they have so far educated over 2000 qualified workers and regularly provided scholarships for studies on secondary schools and universities.
The company has done much for environmental protection. Solid fuels were gradually replaced with liquid ones and the use of generator gas in heating was entirely stopped. The construction of a heating plant for the factory and the town of Ravne was extremely important. With the installation of dust collecting devices, SO2 emissions were reduced from 4 000 tons in 1967 to less than 300 tons per year.
The area developed along with the company. A small market town which had only 1243 inhabitants in 1910 had almost 10 000 people in 1985. They built over 1700 apartments and over 1600 employees, were granted the loans for the construction of individual houses from which the villages Dobja vas, Sance, Janece, Dobji Dvor, Brdinje, Kotlje and Strojanska Reka were built. The Steelworks helped build of secondary school, two primary schools and numerous cultural and sports centers. They organised an internatiorzal Formia viva symposium, the steel sculptures of which decorate the town and the vally.

With the transition to a market economy and loss of markets from other Yugoslav countries in 1991, the Ravne Steetworks entered a period of major crisis. They overcame it by restructuring the whole organization, production and financial help extended by Government of the Republic of Slovenia. Since the Ravne Steelworks was built for the Yugosiav market (at least up to 50 %), its production programmes had to be reviewed and adapted to the requirements of the new, predominnantly international market. At the beginning of 1992, searching for better ,solutions led to the division of the Steelworks into individual companies and at the end of 1994 there were 8 companies owned by the Holding of Slovenian Steelworks: Metal, Jeklolivarna, Nozi, STO, Stroji, Armature Muta, Energetika, and Stanovanjsko podjetje.
A technologically connected production system thus remains in Ravne which together with know how will enable further development. Rehabilitation has not yet been completed. Its ultimate goal is business operation with profit, which will enable privatisation procedures.
Today Ravne is the bearer of the entire Slovenian long product programme in steel metallurgy, with all possibilities for a successful processing in their own company. Successful restructuring is a basic condition of long and rich tradition of steel making in Koroska.