From its very beginning and up until 1950's, the customers of NIZI mostly were concentrated in the blast furnace sector in France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg. These customers were using poor local phosphorous iron ores, including the famous "minette" ore with 25-35% Fe, to produce pig iron. The pig iron was converted into steel by the Gilchrist Thomas process. In addition to supplying these phosphorous iron ores of Lorraine in France and Luxembourg to their blast furnace customers, NIZI purchased Thomas basic slag with 20% P205 to supply the European agricultural industry with phosphorous fertilizer.
At the same time, NIZI was sourcing other raw materials, mainly from France and Belgium, in order to supply the numerous independent blast furnaces existing at that time. Such materials included slags from the Gallo-Roman period, rolling mill scales, slags from reheating furnaces, dust from blast furnaces, and other waste materials as well as manganese bearing materials, such as slags from the steelworks with open furnaces of the "Martin" type.
NIZI also became the sales channel for the Josef Schnuch company Trier Kalk-, Dolomit- und Zementwerke, GmbH, who mined and sintered dolomite products in Wellen, located near Grevenmacher on the German banks of the river Moselle. The cooperation continued until the nineties.
As a specialist in dealing with Thomas slags, NIZI became the center of an active international cooperation with companies involved in chemical fertilizers, such as E. Nickerson & Co., Ltd. in Grimsby, England, Oranienburger Chemische Fabrik GmbH in Germany, and the Belgian company SABECH S.A., which - together with Albert Marcour - became an important shareholder of NIZI for several decades. NIZI also supplied nitrided fertilizers from Belgium and potassic fertilizers ("Potasses d'Alsace") to the Luxembourg agricultural sector.
The company was founded in 1898 by Nicolas Zimmer under the name N. Zimmer-Maroldt. It is interesting to note that Nizi International is the oldest company in its field operating in Luxembourg. Early in the operation of the company, Nicolas Zimmer used the first letters of his name to form the telegraphic logo: "NIZI". This logo continued to be utilized by the Compagnie des Mines et Métaux S.A., a company founded in 1923 by Nicolas Zimmer and some friends - among them Georges Brasseur - to continue and develop the activities carried out during the first twenty five years of NIZI's existence. At that time, the Company's office was located on Boulevard Emile Servais in Luxembourg. Later on the office was moved to rue des Acacias whose name changed to rue du Fort Rheinsheim.
