So, after 2018's not so successful Belgium trip, we have decided to do another trip and not going to Heavy Metal was not a possibility.
A bit of history for the sake of completeness:
Steelmaking in the valley of Liége dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, when John Cockerill, an English engineer, started a factory that produced steam engines for spinning mills. In general, the company was thriving well into the 60s and 70s. Then after the reorganization from ECCS in 1952 multiple mergers took place, forming Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence in Liége and Hainaut-Sambre and Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau (TMM) in the Charleroi area. During this period the Chertal plant was constructed - in 1963 - by Esperance-Longdoz. Because of rising oil prices in the late 1960s, Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence and Esperance-Longdoz have merged into Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence et Esperance-Longdoz in 1970. This was followed by a sale of the Providence plant to TMM because the plant was located in Charleroi, while the rest of the company's assets were in Liége. Then there was a period of high steel production. So high that the market became oversaturated and in 1979 the production and number of plants were halved compared to the year 1974. The reductions continued up till 1985. In 1980 TMM was bought by Hainaut-Sambre and in 1981 the government of Wallonia has decided that the steel companies in Charleroi and Liége should be put under one management, resulting in the formation in Cockerill-Sambre. Then a larger restructuring plan took place, reducing the workforce to around 15000 and limiting the production to three plants. The number of operating blast furnaces in 1988 was 4 - down from 30 in the 60s. Then a stable period followed with quite a bit of diversification but in the 1990s the European steel crisis started, due to the competition from Chinese and Korean steelmakers. More restructuring and a multi-billion bailout from the EU followed and the company somewhat stabilized, creating profit in 1994. Then in 1998 most of the government's stake in the company was acquired by Usinor, a French steel company. Usinor merged with Arbed and Aceralia to form Arcelor in 2001 and 2002. Then in 2006 Arcelor merged with Mittal to create ArcelorMittal. In 2010 the steel prices began falling and the demand was low, so in 2011 ArcelorMittal decided to lower the production in Europe in the older plants - Chertal plant was one of them, and that's how it all ended. Then in 2012, they've decided to shut down multiple blast furnaces, including those in Florange.
Our explore:
The explore was significantly easier than a year earlier when there was actual security on the site. It looks like now that they have applied for a demolition permit (December 2018 I believe) that they don't care anymore. The place is still a blast to explore, we've spent about 6 or 7 hours there, but there are some inhabitants there, scrappers were running around us with headlights and cables falling from somewhere up above was not something uncommon. Still worth it, especially knowing it will be probably be demolished soon.
On with the photos:
The first thing we saw
The same spot from the lower crane level
Still the same sport from higher ground
Side shot of the railings from the photo above
Another hall
Large amounts of stripped cables are the characteristic of this place
One floor higher - don't know what that large tube is, but it is a tube heaven
Highest floor
Compressors or something - stripped of course
A tourniquet (at least I think) to rotate ladles between halls
I don't have any good photos of the newer part of the steel mill, but I think the most scenic parts are covered. I don't have any photos from the outside since it was raining when we got there.
Anyway, the end of the report.
A bit of history for the sake of completeness:
Steelmaking in the valley of Liége dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, when John Cockerill, an English engineer, started a factory that produced steam engines for spinning mills. In general, the company was thriving well into the 60s and 70s. Then after the reorganization from ECCS in 1952 multiple mergers took place, forming Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence in Liége and Hainaut-Sambre and Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau (TMM) in the Charleroi area. During this period the Chertal plant was constructed - in 1963 - by Esperance-Longdoz. Because of rising oil prices in the late 1960s, Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence and Esperance-Longdoz have merged into Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence et Esperance-Longdoz in 1970. This was followed by a sale of the Providence plant to TMM because the plant was located in Charleroi, while the rest of the company's assets were in Liége. Then there was a period of high steel production. So high that the market became oversaturated and in 1979 the production and number of plants were halved compared to the year 1974. The reductions continued up till 1985. In 1980 TMM was bought by Hainaut-Sambre and in 1981 the government of Wallonia has decided that the steel companies in Charleroi and Liége should be put under one management, resulting in the formation in Cockerill-Sambre. Then a larger restructuring plan took place, reducing the workforce to around 15000 and limiting the production to three plants. The number of operating blast furnaces in 1988 was 4 - down from 30 in the 60s. Then a stable period followed with quite a bit of diversification but in the 1990s the European steel crisis started, due to the competition from Chinese and Korean steelmakers. More restructuring and a multi-billion bailout from the EU followed and the company somewhat stabilized, creating profit in 1994. Then in 1998 most of the government's stake in the company was acquired by Usinor, a French steel company. Usinor merged with Arbed and Aceralia to form Arcelor in 2001 and 2002. Then in 2006 Arcelor merged with Mittal to create ArcelorMittal. In 2010 the steel prices began falling and the demand was low, so in 2011 ArcelorMittal decided to lower the production in Europe in the older plants - Chertal plant was one of them, and that's how it all ended. Then in 2012, they've decided to shut down multiple blast furnaces, including those in Florange.
Our explore:
The explore was significantly easier than a year earlier when there was actual security on the site. It looks like now that they have applied for a demolition permit (December 2018 I believe) that they don't care anymore. The place is still a blast to explore, we've spent about 6 or 7 hours there, but there are some inhabitants there, scrappers were running around us with headlights and cables falling from somewhere up above was not something uncommon. Still worth it, especially knowing it will be probably be demolished soon.
On with the photos:
The first thing we saw
The same spot from the lower crane level
Still the same sport from higher ground
Side shot of the railings from the photo above
Another hall
Large amounts of stripped cables are the characteristic of this place
One floor higher - don't know what that large tube is, but it is a tube heaven
Highest floor
Compressors or something - stripped of course
A tourniquet (at least I think) to rotate ladles between halls
I don't have any good photos of the newer part of the steel mill, but I think the most scenic parts are covered. I don't have any photos from the outside since it was raining when we got there.
Anyway, the end of the report.
Keep meaning to take a look at this, shame that it'll be demolished soon.
. The rolling mill has recently been sold so the security controls were increased. As no one has bought the steel mill so far, it is still unclear what will happen to it.
