Vokamet (legally Vokavska Metalurgija) is the steel and rolling combine that dominates the Foundry District of Cetingrad. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maj Holdings, acquired in the 1993 privatisation of the former state Vokavovic Iron & Steel Combine and the private Cetingrad Foundry Company. Workers and local press still call the complex “the Combine”; corporate letterhead in Polograd lists it only as a Maj Holdings metals asset.
The firm is the operational face of Maj capital in District VIII. Day-to-day management is local — managing directors, works bosses, and municipal allies such as Mayors Said Klopje and Robert Lujek — while strategic finance, export pricing, and dividend extraction are decided at Maj Tower in Polograd. Chairman Bran Maj has not made a publicly recorded plant-floor visit since the 1994 commissioning ceremony.
Absentee ownership
Maj Holdings presents Vokamet as a “Zahodecelska industrial champion.” In practice the subsidiary remits the bulk of operating surplus east to Pologradska agro-trade and Novi Otonik metallurgy books. Northern Power and Foundry District unions describe the arrangement as eastern extraction through a local nameplate: Cetingrad bears the smog, injuries, and Red Shore liability; Maj Holdings books the foreign-exchange steel sales across Lake Vokavovic.
Local executives are chosen for loyalty and media usefulness rather than independence. They speak for “jobs” and “the Combine” at City Hall; they do not set Lake export contracts or Capital expenditure ceilings.
Leadership
- Dragan Huljak (Managing Director, 2014–Present) — Cetingrad-born accountant; former Maj Logistics western controller. Public spokesman during the Lujek mayoralty; rarely photographed with Maj.
- Ante Bilic (Works Director, 1993–2001) — first plant-level Maj appointee after privatisation; failed Vjetrusa mayoral candidate in late 1998.
- Mira Kovacic (Works Director, 2018–Present) — rolling-mill engineer; handles SZNO negotiations and Municipal safety inspections under Lujek-era waivers.
- Said Klopje and Robert Lujek — municipal proxies rather than Vokamet officers; both rose from western logistics networks tied to Maj Holdings freight into the Combined yards.
Controversies
Vokamet operated Blast Furnace No. 4 at the time of the 1998 Cetingrad Steelworks Incident (contemporary reporting often still said “Maj Steel”). Subsequent libel fights over the Northfocus documentary series Red Shore named Maj Holdings as parent and Vokamet as the dumping operator on Lake Vokavovic. Labour case SZNO v. Maj Steel (1996) concerned stoppages at the same Cetingrad yards under the older trade style.