Tradition of METAL international metallurgical conferences and trade fairs that are held in Ostrava every May was established in the year 1992. Organization of this event was proposed by today's Managing Director of Prague Fair Administration TERINVEST, s.r.o. Ing. Jiří Šviga at the end of the year 1991. Fast realization of this idea was achieved in cooperation with the representatives of the Czech Society for New Materials and Technologies (ČSNMT) Ing. Jiří Brábník and Ing. Tasilo Prnka, DrSc.

Organization of the conference part is in hands of the Ostravian company TANGER, spol . s.r.o. together with other co-organizers, with the ČSNMT belonging to the traditional ones. Organization of the fair part is secured by the TERINVEST, s.r.o. company.

By the year 1999 the conference part was called Symposium and was divided into individual sessions. Since the year 2000 there have been held Conferences divided into Symposia according to professional topics which are mostly held as parallel. Individual Symposia are further divided in to sessions.

The conference part of the METAL event traditionally takes place in the Hotel Atom which is situated "next door" to the Palace of Culture and Sports where the fair is placed. In the year 2000 two Symposia were held also in other Ostravian hotel HARMONY for the first time.

The conference part of METAL has been chaired by the same specialist. Ing. Tasilo Prnka, DrSc. since its beginning. A lot of Czech experts took part in program committees. During the last years these are mostly experts of the VSB - Technical University in Ostrava.

Prof. Ing. Boris Sommer,CSC. and Prof. Ing. Miroslav Kursa, CSc. became a conference chairmen in the yaer 2002. It was last time in 2001, when conference METAL with exhibition METAL were in hotel ATOM.

Conference named METAL is still alive and it was moved to Hradec nad Moravici in the 2002. Prof. Ing. Jiri Kliber, CSc. and Prof. Ing. Kursa, CSc. are conference chairmen from the 2004.

1st Metallurgical Symposium was exclusively focused on iron metallurgy and steel production. There were 13 lectures, out of which foreign guests presented 5. Poster session was not organized. The symposium was attended by 110 participants, 23 from abroad. The proceedings of lectures were published on 172 pages. The first speaker was Ing. Jaroslav Dušek, Hutnictví železa, a.s., Prague, who presented his lecture " Transformation of Czechoslovak metallurgy to free market economy conditions".

2nd Metallurgical Symposium was organized to the larger extent. There were 40 lectures presented and 17 posters exhibited. Attendance was 135 participants, 42 from abroad. Two-volume proceedings reached 544 pages. 11 firms used the Symposium for their presentation.

3rd Metallurgical Symposium was divided into 8 sessions. (Steel production; Non-ferrous metals; Laboratory equipment; Forming and surface treatment; Production of pig iron and ferro-alloys; Powder metallurgy and composites; Steels products and their properties and Foundry industry). 75 lectures were presented and 100 posters exhibited. 244 participants, out of whom 70 were foreigners, attended the symposium. Four - volume proceedings had 1234 pages. 9 firms were presented. The main speaker was Dr.-Ing. Hans Bleilebens, VDEh Dusseldorf, Germany, who presented the lecture, called "Technical development in steel industry".

4th Metallurgical Symposium was again organized in 8 sessions (Iron metallurgical companies inform; Steelmaking, continuous casting and heat resisting materials; Non-ferrous metals; Forming of steel; Raw materials, pig iron production, ferro- alloys and waste treatment; Composites and powder metallurgy; Steel products and their properties; and Foundry industry). 92 lectures were presented and 57 posters exhibited. 180 participants attended the symposium, 49 were from abroad. The four-volume proceedings had 984 pages. 9 companies were introduced. The main speaker was Prof. Ing. Zdeněk Bohm,CSc., Hutnictví železa, a.s. who presented the lecture "Current State of Czech steelmaking industry".

5th Metallurgical Symposium was divided into 5 sessions (Production of pig iron, cast iron and steel; Continuous casting of steel; Steel products and their properties; Non-ferrous metals; Powder metallurgy and composites; Forming of materials). 102 lectures were presented and 58 posters exhibited. The symposium was attended by 173 participants, 80 from abroad (from 11 countries). The four-volume proceedings had 893 pages. 3 firms were introduced. The main speaker was Dr. Paul Nilles, C.R.M, Liege, Belgium who presented the lecture " Impact of new technologies on future arrangement of steel industry".

6th Metallurgical Symposium was held in 4 sessions (Production of pig iron, steel, continuous casting, ferro-alloys, foundry industry; Steel products, their properties, testing, surface treatment; Non-ferrous metals and alloys, powder metallurgy and composites; Forming of steel). 93 lectures were presented and 111 posters were exhibited. 224 participants took part in the Symposium, 114 were from abroad. Four-volume proceedings had 939 pages. The main speaker was Prof. RNDr. Jaroslav Fiala, DrSc., Škoda, Výzkum, and s.r.o. Plzeň, who presented the lecture, titled "Material engineering at the beginning of the 21st century". The poster seminar of the Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic and Grant Agency of the CR "Grant projects in metallurgy and material engineering" took place within the poster session. 38 posters were presented.

7th Metallurgical Symposium was organized in 6 sessions (Production of steel, continuous casting; Forming of steel; Surface treatment, surface layers; Steel products; Non-ferrous metals, composites; Production of pig iron, ferro-alloys, foundry industry). 93 lectures were presented and 76 posters were exhibited. 210 participants attended the Symposium, 81 from abroad (from 18 countries). The four-volume proceedings had 1013 pages. The main speaker was Dr. Paul Costa, ONERA, Chatillon, France, the President of FEMS, who presented the lecture "Materials needs of aeronautics in the year 2000".

8th Metallurgical Symposium was organized in 8 sessions (Steel in civil engineering; Production of steel and iron, continuous casting; Forming of steel; Surface engineering, layers; Steels products; Non-ferrous metals; Foundry industry; Steels for power engineering). There was organized a workshop called "European Research and Development Programs and Innovation Strategies" in the course of the Symposium, sponsored by BIC, s.r.o. Ostrava. 119 lectures were presented and 85 posters were exhibited. The Symposium was attended by 217 participants, 54 foreigners (14 countries). The four-volume proceedings had 1080 pages. The main speaker was Prof. Dr. Ing.Hans Warlimont, IFW Dresden, Germany who presented the lecture " Functional iron- based materials".

9th Metallurgical Conference consisted of 8 Symposia (Advanced steelmaking; Forming of metals; Steel products; Advanced foundry technologies; Selected problems of surface coating formation; Non-ferrous metals and its alloys; Degradation processes; Nanomaterials and grain boundaries). 184 lectures were presented at the conference and 62 posters were exhibited. 268 participants, out of who was from abroad (20 countries) attended symposium. For the first time complete versions of all lectures were edited on a CD-ROM. The printed proceedings of abstracts have 113 pages. The main speaker was Ing. Karel Šperlink, CSc., The Council of Government of Czech Republic for Research and Development, Prague, who presented the lecture called "National policy of research and development".

10th Conference of Metallurgy and Materials consisted of 7 Symposia (Advanced steelmaking; Forming of metals; Modern metalography-materialography; High temperature metallic materials; Non-ferrous metals and alloys (including materials for electrical engineering and electronics); Surface engineering; Nanomaterials and grain boundaries). As obvious, there was a certain shift to the field of material science and material engineering - from the Conference title and Symposia focus.

11th International Metallurgical Conference took place for the first time in Hradec nad Moravicí. This is a town near the traditional city Ostrava. It moved to the beautiful Red Chateau with the auditorium and 5 well-placed conference rooms. It consisted of 5 Symposia (Advanced Iron Production and Steel Making, Metal Forming, Steel Products - Properties, Surface Engineering, Non-ferrous Metals and Alloys). All full versions of papers and posters were edited on a CD-ROM again. The participants heard 112 papers out and then they could study 38 posters in the poster section. There were attended by 184 participants from 13 countries.

12th International Metallurgical Conference took place in Hradec nad Moravicí again within three days (20th - 22nd May 2003), so a week later than years ago. It consisted of 5 Symposia traditionally (Advanced Iron Production and Steel Making, Metal Forming, Steel Products - Properties, Surface Engineering, Non-ferrous Metals and Alloys). There were heard lectures from famous specialists from the industry, universities and technical companies. Total attendance was 189 participants, 41 foreigners. It was reported 118 lectures and was published 38 posters.

13th International Conference on Metallurgy and Materials took place in Hradec nad Moravicí again. It was in days from 18th to 20th May 2004. The attendants of conference came from 9 countries in the total number 196 (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Great Britain, Egypt, Russia and Austria). There participated 30 graduants in this conference. There were edited 215 reports in conference proceedings (154 papers and 61 posters). In the plenary section were reported 6 papers, consequential proceedings took in 5 sections as by last conference.

14th International Conference on Metallurgy and Materials took place from 24th to 26th May in Hradec nad Moravicí. And it consisted from 5 Symposia again. There were reported 6 papers in the plenary section from representatives of principal metallurgical companies and universities. Total attendance was 184 participants, 44 participants were abroad. There were accepted 215 reports in the conference proceedings, of all this 69 posters.

15th International Conference on Metallurgy and Materials took place from 23rd to 25th May 2006 in Hradec nad Moravicí and it had 5 Symposia again. There were attended by 192 participants from 15 countries (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Russia, Mexico, Lithuania, South Korea, Germany, Romania, Slovenia, Great Britain, Spain, Algeria, Netherlands, Turkey). The sponsors of conference were Mittal Steel Ostrava, Třinecké železárny Třinec and Olympus C&S Praha.

16th International Conference on Metallurgy and Materials took place from May 22nd to 24th 2007 in Hradec nad Moravicí and it had 5 Symposia again. There were reported two papers from representatives of principal metallurgical companies in the plenary session. The participants had possibility to listen to another 152 papers. The number of participants was 177. There was 137 participants from Czech Republic. There was participants from abroad: Russia (6), Mexico (3), Romania (3), France (1), Slovenia (18), Germany (3), Ukraine (4), Netherlands (1) and Croatia (1).