The huge advantages of this process were cost-saving on the one hand (investment costs were only 65% and operation costs only 55% compared to the SM blast furnace), and larger production capacities on the other. Werksausbau began as a division of VÖEST in 1956. The invention of the LD process and experiences gained from the complete reconstruction after the war led to the first external large-scale commission in the area of industrial plant construction in Rourkela, India, in 1958. It was a great success. Thereafter, many commissions from different metallurgical plants on almost all continents followed. The construction of industrial plants in the steel mill sector soon grew further, with the addition of hot and cold rolling mills as well as the construction of blast furnaces and metallurgical plants’ additional facilities like granulation plants and dolomite plants. Due to the increasing amount of tasks, the New Construction Division had to be changed into "Industrial Construction and Plant Development" with a new focus on turnkey projects. 1964, VÖEST expanded their portfolio once more, this time with the construction of chemical plants, which soon reached a share of more than two thirds of the total turnover. Another milestone was the introduction of the continuous casting technology for the production of slabs. The huge amount of commissions and the increasing expansion of their own facilities led VÖEST to further increase their hot steel production from 2.3 to 3.1 million tons per year. During this time, the number of employees grew to approximately 4,000 people. An additional center of technology was built in Vienna and additional constructors from Austria as well as from other countries were flown in. In 1973, the two nationalized iron and steel industries VÖEST and Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft (Alpine) merged and became Voest-Alpine AG.The organization was restructured into the areas of “metallurgical plants” (seven divisions) and “chemical plants” (two divisions). When the oil crisis started in 1974, the metallurgical industry was severely affected in all parts of the world. The consequence was a significant decline in prices within the steel sector, which also affected the construction of plants. Still, the area of technology (industrial plant construction and ready-to-use industry) became increasingly important for the company. Thus, the metallurgical plant’s share of turnover was 80% in 1973 - however, in 1976, the share of the plant construction and ready-to-use industries already amounted to 45%.