Società Costruzioni Industriali Milano, better known as Socimi, was an Italian manufacturing company based in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. It was a manufacturer of

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

s, metro trains;

traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...

s for these and for

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es; and bodies for motorbuses and trolleybuses.Bushell, Chris (ed.) (1989). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 1989'', pp. 399, 408, 545 and 560. Coulsdon, Surrey (UK):

Jane's Information Group Janes is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Information Group was founded in 1898 by Fred T. ...

. . It also manufactured

weapon A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...

s, such as

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

s. The company was founded by engineer Alessandro Marzocco in 1969 and was declared

insolvent In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet in ...

in 1994 due to its involvement in the ''

Mani pulite (; ) was a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption in Italy held in the early 1990s, resulting in the demise of the First Italian Republic and the disappearance of many political parties. Some politicians and industry leade ...

'' scandal in 1992. The remains of said company were subsequently placed into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

in 2002, and in 2014 an arrangement proposal ("proposta di concordato") to settle the company's remaining liabilities was made by the company Assuntore San Tommaso Uno, controlled by the US investment company Värde Partners. Trolleybus systems, which purchased Socimi trolleybuses, included the systems of

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

and

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

.Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia'', p. 108–109. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. . The company supplied trams only to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, but collaborated with

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. ...

in the development of the Eurotram for the

Strasbourg tramway The Strasbourg tramway (, ; ), run by the Compagnie des Transports Strasbourgeois, CTS, is a network of six tramlines, A, B, C, D, E and F that operate in the cities of Strasbourg in Alsace, France, and Kehl in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is ...

in France.

Heavy rail Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid acceleratio ...

trains produced by Socimi included the FNM Socimi coaches for Ferrovie Nord Milano as well as EMU300 trains for

Taiwan Railways Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) was a governmental agency in Taiwan which operated Taiwan Railway from 1948 to 2023. It managed, maintained, and operated conventional passenger and freight Rail transport, railway services on of track. Pa ...

Firearms

SOCIMI produced the Socimi Type 821

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

in the 1980s.

References

External links

Defunct manufacturing companies of Italy Defunct firearms manufacturers Firearm manufacturers of Italy Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of Italy Bus manufacturers of Italy Electric vehicle manufacturers of Italy Trolleybus manufacturers {{Italy-company-stub