ALZ (''Allegheny-Longdoz'') is a stainless steel producer based in

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

in Limburg province,

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

, Belgium. In 2001 the company was merged with French stainless steel producer ''Ugine'' and in 2006 became part of the

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourg-based multinational steel manufacturing corporation, headquartered in Luxembourg City. It is ranked second on the list of steel producers behind Baowu, and had an annual crude steel production of 58 millio ...

group as part of the stainless steel division.

History

ALZ was founded as a vertically integrated stainless steel producer in 1960 as an equal holding between Espérance-Longdoz (Belgium) (controlled by ''Evence Coppée'') and Allegheny Ludlum (USA).The Belgian economy in the twentieth century, p.171 In 1970 Espérance-Longdoz (''Société Métallurgique d'Espérance Longdoz'') became part of

Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence Cockerill-Sambre was a group of Belgian steel manufacturers headquartered in Seraing, on the river Meuse, and in Charleroi, on the river Sambre. The Cockerill-Sambre group was formed in 1981 by the merger of two Belgian steel groups – SA Cocke ...

, and ALZ became a Cockerill subsidiary; Allegheny Ludlum disposed of its shares, and in 1971 Cockerill had a 90% stake of the shares. In 1979/80 the Cockerill group was restructure due to financial problems, and also disposed of its shares; German steel company Klöckner became a shareholder, in 1981 the other Flanders-based steelmaker Sidmar became a shareholder, by 1987 the majority shareholder. In 1988 the company became part of the Arbed group. In 2001 Arbed became part of

Arcelor Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004. The company was created in 2002 ...

and ALZ merged with French stainless producer Société d’électrochimie, d'électrométallurgie et des aciéries électriques d'Ugine , former producer of the Zyklon B in France during World War II, to become ''Ugine & ALZ'' (U&A). Subsequently, in 2006, Arcelor merged with

Mittal Steel Company Mittal Steel Company N.V., incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in the United Kingdom, was a steel producer. In 2006, it produced 110.5 million tonnes of steel and had annual production capacity of 138 million tons of steel. In August ...

to form

, and the works is now part of ArcelorMittal's stainless steel division.

Production

Initially the company processed steel by cold rolling, annealing and other processes, using stainless steel imported from the USA. Later the plant expanded to include casting, and an electric foundry installed in 1970. Cast stainless blocks were produced at the factory and sent to the '' Espérance-Longdoz'' plant in Chertal, Liege for conversion to slab, they then returned to ALZ for rolling. Continuous cast stainless steel production was introduced in the mid-1970s, eliminated the need to have slabbing done at Chertal. Widths of up to 2050 mm could be continuous cast. In 1987, an electric foundry was installed with ultra-high power electric arc furnace, converter and vacuum oxygen decarburisation increasing capacity by more than double. As of 2002 steel production was ~1million tonne pa producing stainless steel coil and plate mainly from scrap. The factory site of is connected to the rail network, and is situated on the north bank of the Albert Canal from which it draws cooling water.

References

Sources

Further information

External links

* * ArcelorMittal Steel companies of Belgium Companies based in Limburg (Belgium) {{Belgium-company-stub