Centro Sperimentale Metallurgico (since 1986 Centro Sviluppo Materiali) was founded in 1963 as a corporate organization and as a crossing point for steel producers and steel users. It was settled in Rome half-way between the northern-central steelworks (Genoa, Terni, Piombino) and the southern ones (Bagnoli and Tarent), within the area covered, at the time, by the special Reserve Fund for the Italian Southern Regions (Cassa del Mezzogiorno). In the Mid Seventies CSM became the Research Centre of the publicly-owned Financial Holding Finsider, its majority shareholder, whose subsequent financial crisis and break-up unavoidably involved CSM. In 1988 Finsider was in fact put into liquidation and started its restructuring process. In 1989 the radical restructuring of Finsider came to the end with the birth of ILVA still publicly-owned, however no longer as a holding but as a limited company.

CSM was also restructured. The new management drastically reduced the personnel, introduced new decision-making criteria and accounting rules, and assigned wider responsibilities to various company functions. Even the indoor architecture of the former building was modified. It was intended to give clear evidence of a discontinuity with the past.