science

Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas

Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas rather than just read about it. In short: Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas (abbreviated as SECEM), colloquially known as "electro", was a Spanish company in the non-ferrous metals industry that operated between 1917 and 1978. Throughout its existence it was one of the most important Spanish companies in the copper sector, having its main activity in Córdoba.

Key takeaways

Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas (abbreviated as SECEM), colloquially known as "electro", was a Spanish company in the non-ferrous metals industry that operated between 1917 and 1978. Throughout its existence it was one of the most important Spanish companies in the copper sector, having its main activity in Córdoba. Among its products were copper products, brass, electrical transformers, etc.

History The company was founded on June 15, 1917, with Spanish-French financial support, with a capital stock of 25 million pesetas. It was born in the context of a boom in Spanish industry, in the heat of the First World War. Two foreign capital companies were involved in its creation, the Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya (SMMP) and the Rio Tinto Company Limited (RTC), both of which became shareholders of the new company. The SECEM owned an important plant in Cordoba dedicated to copper metallurgy, brass production, manufacture of motors and electric transformers, etc. Over the years it ended up becoming one of the main companies in the sector, having also a great importance in the local context of Cordoba. The company came to manufacture nearly 40% of all the electrolytic copper produced in Spain, being supplied to a large extent by the material coming from the Rio Tinto-Nerva mining basin. In this sense, SECEM became an important client of the Compañía Española de Minas de Río Tinto (CEMRT), and later the companies Río Tinto Patiño and Río Tinto Minera would have an important shareholding in SECEM. In spite of this privileged situation, the lack of internal competition meant that the machinery and technology of the Cordovan factory were not modernized, which in the long term would end up causing serious problems for SECEM's economic viability. Towards the end of the 1970s, the industrial crisis had a considerable impact on the copper sector. Taking advantage of this context, in May 1978 SECEM —with the financial support of Banco de Bilbao and Banco Hispano Americano— proceeded to acquire the companies Pradera Hermanos, Sociedad Industrial Asturiana and Earle; at the end of the year, all of these companies formed the conglomerate Ibercobre, which controlled 60% of the copper market. The SECEM complex in Cordoba remained intact until 1989–1990, after the purchase of Ibercobre by the Finnish company Outokumpu, which decided to split it into three separate industries.

Railway equipment

The SECEM factory in Cordoba was located to the west of the city, next to the route of the Cordoba-Seville and Cordoba-Malaga railway lines, which allowed its production to be transported by rail. For this purpose, an industrial branch and several sidings were set up within the industrial complex. Eventually SECEM acquired two 0-2-0T steam locomotives to take over the shunting and traction work with the freight wagons. One of these engines, acquired in 1963, was the former RENFE 020–0212. It is currently preserved and exhibited in Cordoba.

Notes

References

Bibliography Arenas Posadas, Carlos (2017). "Riotinto, el declive de un mito minero (1954-2003)". Revista de Historia Industrial (in Spanish) (69). Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona: 109–142. ISSN 1132-7200. Cano Sanchíz, Juan Manuel (2008). "Arqueología industrial en Córdoba: la Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas (primera fase: 1917-1930)". Anales de arqueología cordobesa (in Spanish) (19). Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba: 361–386. ISSN 1130-9741. Carbonell, Antonio (1926). Guía artística de Córdoba (in Spanish). Madrid: Artes de la Ilustración. Fernández López, Javier (2006). "Locomotoras de vapor preservadas en España" (PDF). IV Congreso Historia Ferroviaria: Málaga, septiembre de 2006 (in Spanish). Consejería de Obras Públicas y Transportes de la Junta de Andalucía. Granda Alva, Germán; Segundo Pérez, Francisca (1983). El cobre. Estructura del mercado internacional e importancia para América Latina y España (in Spanish). Ediciones Cultura Hispánica del Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana. López-Morell, Miguel A. (2016). The House of Rothschild in Spain, 1812–1941. Routledge. Pascual Domenech, Pere (2008). "La industria del cobre en España II: de 1976 a 2005". Revista de Historia Industrial (in Spanish) (38). Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona: 115–159. ISSN 1132-7200. Porro Herrera, María José; Sánchez Dueñas, Blas (2010). Vanguardias literarias en Córdoba, 1914-1936 (in Spanish). Córdoba: Diputación Provincial de Córdoba.

External links

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas

In research: Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Companies disestablished in 1978, Defunct companies of Spain, Metallurgical organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas in simple terms?

Why does Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sociedad Española de Construcciones Electromecánicas.