On 8 August 1887 Valcke and Thys directed transport of five carts weighing 1,500–3,500 kilograms (3,300–7,700 lb) to Stanley Pool, which took hundreds of local laborers a month to achieve.

[7] The heavily loaded carts carried spare parts for the Roi des Belges and Ville de Bruxelles boats.

[8] In March 1888 the Léopoldville shipyards organized by Charles Liebrechts launched the Roi des Belges on the upper Congo River for the CCCI.

[9] The first three subsidiaries of the CCCI were the Compagnie des Magasins généraux du Congo (22 October 1888), which would establish hotels and retail outlets for imports, mainly in Boma and Matadi; the Compagnie des Produits du Congo (29 November 1889), based on the Île de Mateba, which would breed cattle and trade in agricultural products; and the Société anonyme belge pour le commerce du Haut-Congo (SAB), which would take over existing companies in the upper Congo and engage in the ivory and rubber trade.

[10] In 1888 Valcke and the engineer Fabry reported the general route of the Matadi-Léopoldville Railway based on a sketch map drawn up by Thuys.

In 1899 the company and the Free State government formed the Comité Spécial du Katanga (CSK) to administer the whole province, with its own police force.

The founders included the Société Belge et Minière du Katanga, the CCCI, the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, the Belgo-Katanga and others.

[19] To raise capital, in January 1899 Thys founded the Compagnie internationale pour le commerce et l’industrie (CICI), soon after renamed the Banque d'Outremer.

In 1928 the Société Générale, which had absorbed the Banque d'Outremer, made the CCCI its main holding company in the Congo.

[16] By the 1950s the CCCI owned shares in companies that produced palm oil, coffee, tea, cocoa, rubber and cattle throughout the Congo.

Associated businesses were involved in a wide range of other activities, including agriculture and mining, manufacturing, power generation and banking.

Between 1965 and 1971 it gradually became harder for Belgian companies to do profitable business in the Congo, and the subsidiaries of the CCCI tried to move their activities to Europe.