One of the investors was the Onghena company, a manufacturer of gas engines, which would contribute part of their factory space and machinery towards the production of the new machines.
[2] After the end of the First World War (during which the factory had been occupied and its machines taken to Germany), the company began normal production again.
[3] The company survived the Great Depression due to the relatively stable nature of its customer base, the fishing and shipping industries.
Also, during this period, prototypes for a medium-speed four-stroke single-acting engine were produced, codenamed DU (diesel universal).
[6] During the 1970s the company's financial situation became unfavourable, exacerbated by the loss of one major market, the Belgian Congo, which had become independent in 1960 and could not afford new engines.
Problems with production versions of the DZC engine required further investment to fix, and the shareholders lost confidence in the company, refusing an increase in capital.
As a result, they passed their shares to Ogepar, a Luxembourg-based holding company, thereby raising 75,000,000 Belgian francs in capital.
In 2019, a joint venture between ABC and CMB was initiated in order to produce hydrogen internal combustion engines with a power output of between 0,8 and 2,8 MW.
[10] After a COVID year, where the factory managed to stay open and maintain production, ABC introduced the new EVOLVE engine range at the 2021 Europort show in Rotterdam, Holland.