The roots of the company that went on to become the GHH group can be traced back to the "Gute Hoffnung" ironworks, founded by Eberhard Pfandhöfer in 1780. The factory's range of products included steam engines and mining machinery and equipment. The "Gutehoffnungshütte Aktienverein" (GHH) was set up in Sterkrade in 1873.

In 1968, GHH started building high-performance electric arc furnaces, which were capable of melting not only mass-produced ordinary steel but also low- and high-alloy steels. The following year, GHH was fully incorporated into M.A.N., whose origins go back to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg, founded in 1898. From 1980 onwards, M.A.N. ran the former GHH as an independent metallurgy division (M.A.N. GHH). 

SMS took over the metallurgy division of M.A.N. in 1997. Among other things, it was responsible for blast furnaces, converter and electric steel plants, and electric furnaces.