Estel (also styled as ESTEL)
was a steel company formed by the merging of
Koninklijke Hoogovens IJmuiden steel plant and
Hoesch's main steel plant in
Dortmund
Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
. The company existed from 1972 to 1982 until de-merged.
History
In 1966 the board of
Koninklijke Hoogovens voted in favour of merging their
IJmuiden steelworks with the Dortmund plant of German steelmaker
Hoesch; Hoesch would benefit from the IJmuiden steelwork's port, and Koninklijke Hoogovens' 43% shareholding in the
Dortmund-Hörder Hüttenunion (DHHU) was converted into a 15% shareholding in Hoesch with Hoesch acquiring DHUU. The two firms made agreements on division of work between the plants – IJmuiden was to concentrate on pig iron, crude steel, and semi-manufactured products, whilst Hoesch's Dortmund plant was to produce finished steels and manufactured products. The two entities were merged in 1972, forming ''Estel NV'', headquarter in
Nijmegen
Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...
.
[, via ''www.encyclopedia.com'']
In the mid 1970s the
Steel crisis caused overcapacity in steel production throughout Europe; Estel needed to invest to improve production quality and efficiency to compensate for loss of production volume, and to cut production costs; additionally Hoesch's branch of Estel was making losses, and required support; as such it sought investment from both the German and Netherlands government; however the Dutch government was only willing to invest if the German state also supported the venture, whilst the German state wished any restructuring and investment to be done in collaboration with
Krupp
Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...
(also loss making) which was not acceptable to Dutch banks.
As a result, in 1982 the 50:50 partnership of Estel was dissolved, with Hoesch taking 61% of its liabilities.
Notes
References
External links
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*{{citation, url = http://www.nahraum.de/tml1_de.0.html?article=6088&year=1982, title = Das Jahr 1982 : Stahlehe Hoogovens und Hoesch getrennt, work = www.nahraum.de, language = de, access-date = 2012-02-08, archive-url = https://archive.today/20130211113318/http://www.nahraum.de/tml1_de.0.html?article=6088&year=1982, archive-date = 2013-02-11, url-status = dead
Steel companies of Germany
Steel companies of the Netherlands
Manufacturing companies established in 1972
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1982
1972 establishments in the Netherlands
1982 disestablishments in the Netherlands
Companies based in Gelderland
Organisations based in Nijmegen