Espérance-Longdoz was a coal mining and steel production company located in the Liège region of Belgium. The company merged with

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 ...

in 1970 to form Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence-Espérance Longdoz (known as Cockerill), later being merged into

Usinor Usinor was a French steel making group formed in 1948. The group was merged with Sacilor in 1986, becoming Usinor-Sacilor and was privatised in 1995, and renamed Usinor in 1997. In 2001 it merged with Arbed (Luxembourg) and Aceralia (Spain) to ...

, then

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 ...

then

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 ...

. Production at Longdoz ceased in the latter part of the 20th century, the factory site was redevelopend in the 2000s into a shopping complex ''Médiacité'', one part of the buildings at Longdoz has been preserved and is now the home of an industrial museum ''La Maison de la Métallurgie et de l'Industrie de Liège''. A later steelworks development, built at Chertal in the 1960s is still in operation (as of 2010) and is part of the

group, within the Liège division.

History

In 1845/6 the Dothée brothers established a

tinplate Tinplate consists of sheet metal, sheets of steel coated with a thin layer of tin to impede rust, rusting. Before the advent of cheap mild steel, the backing metal (known as "") was wrought iron. While once more widely used, the primary use of tinp ...

factory in Longdoz in

Liège Province Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is the easternmost province of the Wallonia region of Belgium. Liège Province is the only Belgian province that has borders with three countries. It borders (clockwise from the north) the Dutch province of Limburg, the ...

, then in 1862/3 the Dothée brothers merged their business with the ''Société anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux, Usines et Charbonnages de l'Espérance'' (founded 1836) forming the ''Société des Charbonnages, Hauts Fourneaux et Laminoirs de l'Espérance''. In 1877 the company disposed of the coal mining business of the company and became the Société métallurgique d'Espérance-Longdoz. The innovation of

hot-dip galvanizing Hot-dip galvanization is a form of galvanization. It is the process of coating iron and steel with zinc, which alloys with the surface of the base metal when immersing the metal in a bath of molten zinc at a temperature of around . When expos ...

was introduced in 1881 by Paul Borgnet who later founded the

Phenix Works The Phenix Works is a steel working factory located in Flémalle-Haute, Liège, Belgium. The business was established in 1905 by Paul Borgnet and became part of SA Phenix Work in 1911. The works specialised in coated steels, such as galvanised, ...

Flémalle Flémalle (; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia within the Liège Province in Belgium. As of 2024, it has a population of 27,002,https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fstatbel.fgov.be%2Fsites%2Fd ...

in 1911. In 1920 ''Evence Coppée & Cie.'' acquired the company.Evence Coppée & Cie : formed 1914, founded by Evence Coppée I, patentee of a Coke oven in 1853, developed into a vertically integrated coal mining and processing company. Disbanded in 1970, holdings later merged with Lafarge to form Lafarge Coppée. Source The company became the largest Belgian producer of sheet metal, reaching a peak production of 142,000 tonnes in 1948. The plant in Longdoz, however was hemmed in by the city, and could not expand. After 1957 the Longdoz plant ceased hot rolling of steel, and was used only for finishing of the plate, and distribution. In 1960 the company formed, in joint venture with

Allegheny Ludlum ATI Inc. (previously Allegheny Technologies Incorporated) is an American producer of specialty materials headquartered in Dallas, Texas. ATI produces metals including titanium and titanium alloys, nickel-based alloys and superalloys, stainles ...

, a new stainless steel producer: Allegheny-Longdoz (ALZ) 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 ...

, Flanders. In 1963 a new plant was built on a

greenfield site Greenfield land is a British English term referring to undeveloped land in an urban or rural area either used for agriculture or landscape design, or left to evolve naturally. These areas of land are usually agricultural or amenity properties ...

at a reclaimed floodplain island site at Chertal, with a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of steel produced by the Linz-Donawitz process. Without primary iron production the plant was supplied from the works 22 km away Seraing by torpedo wagons. The company was sold by ''Evence Coppée & Cie.'' to

in 1970, merging to form

Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence et Espérance Longdoz 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 Cock ...

(abbr. Cockerill), and later became part of

Cockerill-Sambre 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 ultimately Arcelor and ArcelorMittal though the mergers of its parent companies.

Fate

Longdoz

In 2006 the land occupied by the disused steelworks at Longdoz was authorised to be used to create a shopping and leisure complex known as ''Médiacité''. The

BREEAM The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), first published by the Building Research Establishment in 1990, is touted as the world's longest established method of identifying the sustainability of buildings. Ar ...

accredited complex opened 20 October 2009. One part of the steelworks remains, the museum ''La Maison de la Métallurgie et de l'Industrie de Liège''; originally opened in 1963 when production was moved to Chertal, in 1971 the collection was expanded by the addition of relics from the Cockerill company. In 1976 the museum was donated to the city of

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

. The museum contains the reconstruction of the earliest Belgian blast furnace, 19th century steam engines and steam driven machinery, as well as other historically important industrial inventions, including the second prototype dynamo of

Zénobe Gramme Zénobe Théophile Gramme (; 4 April 1826 – 20 January 1901) was a Belgian electrical engineer. He was born at Jehay-Bodegnée on 4 April 1826, the sixth child of Mathieu-Joseph Gramme, and died at Bois-Colombes on 20 January 1901. He invent ...

(1871) and a

Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929) was a German-American statistician, inventor, and businessman who developed an electromechanical tabulating machine for punched cards to assist in summarizing information and, later, in ...

Tabulating machine The tabulating machine was an electromechanical machine designed to assist in summarizing information stored on punched cards. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the U.S. Census, 1890, 1890 U.S. Cens ...

(1889),

Chertal

Production at the Chertal site continued through Cockerill, Cockerill-Sambre, Arcelor, and ArcelorMittal ownership. The facilities became part of the ArcelorMittal Liège division. Hot rolling briefly stopped in from May to April 2009 due to the economic downturn caused by the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. The steel plant was supplied by rail using 130t capacity torpedo wagons. The plant had three LD converters, facilities for iron desulphurisation and vacuum treatment. Production is by

continuous casting Continuous casting, also called strand casting, is the process whereby melting, molten metal is solidified into a "semifinished" Billet (semi-finished product), billet, Bloom (casting)#Bloom, bloom, or Slab (casting)#Slab, slab for subsequent ro ...

with a capacity of 3.5million tonnes pa, the primary product is hot rolled steel coil up to 2m wide. In October 2011 ArcelorMittal announced the closure of liquid steel ("hot phase") production at its Liège division, including blast furnaces in Seraing and part of the plant at Chertal.Sources: * * As of 2012 in Chertal only the Hot Strip Mill is still working. It is supplied with slabs coming from other ArcelorMittal production sites. Its future is uncertain.

Notes

References

Video

Sources

* *

Literature

* *

External links

La Maison de la Métallurgie et de l'Industrie de Liège
- official museum site {{DEFAULTSORT:Esperance-Longdoz Defunct companies of Belgium Steel companies of Belgium Companies based in Liège History of Liège