Forges de la Providence was a Belgian steel producing company based in the Hainaut region around Charleroi. Founded as ''Société Anonyme des laminoirs, forges, fonderies et usines de la Providence'' the company had three steel production sites at Marchienne-au-Pont in Belgium, and Réhon and Hautmont in France. The company was independent until 1966 when it became part of the

Cockerill-Ougrée 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 ...

, briefly being absorbed into '' Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau'' before becoming 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 Cock ...

. In the 1980s the French steel plants closed, the Belgian plant continued to operate until 2008, becoming part of the Duferco group as Carsid at the beginning of the 21st century. Coke and blast furnace production CARSID plant closed in 2008 due to an economic downturn, and did not restart - the plant was closed in 2012.

Company history

In 1836 the Englishman Thomas Bonehill built puddling furnaces for the Puissant and Licot de Nîmes families; in 1838 the company ''Société Anonyme des laminoirs, forges, fonderies et usines de la Providence'' was formed by Clément-Joseph Delbruyère together with Edmond et Jules Puissant and Thomas Bonehill with a permitted capital of 1500,000 francs in order to construct a coke fire blast furnace, together with other equipment from Puissant and Bonehill's company ''la société le grand laminoir de la Providence'', including steam engines (50 and 80 hp), and metal working equipment including hammers, four rolling mills, shears, puddling furnaces, casting equipment and molds as well as associated land, workshops and offices, and refractory brick manufacturing facilities. The first steelworks was at

Marchienne-au-Pont Marchienne-au-Pont ( wa, Mårciene) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It was a commune in its own right before the merger of communes in 1977, when it had a popul ...

, Charleroi (Belgium); in 1843 the company decided to construct a second steelworks in

Hautmont Hautmont () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is southwest of the centre of Maubeuge, and has 14,500 residents. On August 3, 2008, a narrow but strong F4 tornado swept through the town, as well as Maubeuge, Neuf-Mesni ...

(France), equipped to produce plate and rails in expectation of orders for the construction of the French railways. In 1849 Bonehill's successor Alphonse Halbou patented a method for the production of

I-beam An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish, Bulgarian, Spanish, Italian and German), is a beam with an or -shape ...

s by rolling. Later, another steelworks in

Réhon Réhon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Departments of France, department in north-eastern France. It is the town where Jean-Marc Reiser (1941-1983) was born. See also * Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department ...

(France) was constructed, and the first blast furnace began production in 1866. In 1898 a subsidiary ''SA Providence Russe'' opened a steelworks in Russia. The Russian company, based in Sartana nr.

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast ( Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russia ...

, on the Sea of Azov, made heavy losses, and by 1902 went into administration, owing 6 million francs to the Providence company, and had to be re-financed by the

Banque de l'Union Parisienne The Banque de l'Union Parisienne (BUP) was a French investment bank, created in 1904 and merged into Crédit du Nord in 1973. History Société Française et Belge de Banque et d'Escompte From its inception, the Société Générale de Belgique ...

. During the lifetime of the firm the three steel plants expanded. In 1966 the ''

Société Générale de Belgique The ' ( nl, Generale Maatschappij van België; literally "General Company of Belgium") was a large Belgian bank and later holdings company which existed between 1822 and 2003. The ''Société générale'' was originally founded as an investm ...

'' had a majority shareholding in both

(Liege) and in the Forges de la Providence and decided to merge the two firms, forming

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 Cock ...

(Charleroi). This was contrary to the trade unions' preference for regional consolidation; the balance was not restored until 1979 when '' Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau'' (TMM) acquired the La Providence group from ''

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 ...

'', becoming '' Thy-Marcinelle-Providence''. The Rehon plant became part of the

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 for ...

group in November 1979. In 1981 the company became part of the expanded

Fate

The steelworks in France closed in the 1980s. The steelworks in Marchienne-au-Pont, Charleroi became part of Usinor in 1999 and then in 2001 became part of the Duferco group as Carsid. Carsid ended primary steel production in 2008 and was closed in 2012.

History of the steelworks

Marchienne-au-Pont

The plant at Marchienne-au-Pont operated for over 100 years until in 2001 the plant began to be run down. The coking plant was no longer to be maintained, and the possibility of closure of blast furnace 4 also raised. Usinor entered discussions with the industrial group

Duferco Duferco Participations Holding SA, is a company based in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Its main business is trading, producing, importing and exporting steel. History Duferco was founded in 1979 by Italian Bruno Bolfo. His goal was to learn fr ...

with a view to continue hot steel production at the plant. In 2001 Carsid was created from the Charleroi plant at the same as the creation 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 became part of the Duferco group. In 2006/7 the plant became part of a joint venture with

Novolipetsk Steel Novolipetsk Steel, or NLMK, is one of the four largest steel companies in Russia. NLMK's share of domestic crude steel production is about 21%. It primarily produces flat steel products, semi-finished steel products and electrical steels. NLMK a ...

: CARSID-SIF. In 2007 the blast furnace No.4 was recommissioned after a 3 month refurbishment process, in 2008 the sites coking plant was closed; the plant now being supplied through a strategic arrangement with Novolipetsk (Russia). Duferco used Carsid to supply slab to its other Belgian steelmaking works, Duferco La Louvière and Duferco Clabecq. Blast furnace production was stopped in Nov. 2008 due to low economic demand (see 2007–2012 global economic crisis), Production at the plant was halted for three years; by 2011 the joint venture between NLMK and Duferco had ended, with NLMK acquiring the joint venture's flat production at Clabeque and La Louviere and other sites for $600 million, supplied by its own blast furnaces; Duferco continued to seek a partner or buyer for Carsid. In Mar. 2012 the Duferco announced that work at the blast furnace would not restart. Approximately 1000 people were to be made redundant by the end of 2012.

Hautmont-sur-Sambre

Opened in 1843 with a foundery and mills. The first blast furnace opened in 1845, additional blast furnaces were added in 1853, 1855 and 1890, in 1905 galvanising facilities were added. After complete modernisation between 1910-14 the plant was entirely destroyed during the first world war. On reconstruction, the plant was constructed to utilise the Siemens-Martin process and the reconstruction funded by reparations from Germany. New rolling mills were added in 1921. The plant survived the second world war with little damage. After becoming part of

in 1966 and

in 1981 the plant closed in 1985.

Rehon

The plant opened in 1866 with two blast furnaces in operation by 1867 with capacities of 60 and 80 tonnes per day. The works expanded with a third blast furnace in 1871, a Gilchrist–Thomas converter in 1911, fourth, fifth and sixth blast furnaces in 1922, 1930 and 1949. After the merger with Cockerill-Ougrée the factory was transferred to

in 1979, and in 1984 became part of ''Unimétal'', before closing in 1987.

References

Sources

External links

;Haumont * ;Charleroi * ** ** * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forges De La Providence Coking works Steel companies of Belgium Steel companies of France Manufacturing companies established in 1836 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1966 1836 establishments in Belgium 1966 disestablishments in Belgium Defunct manufacturing companies of Belgium Companies based in Hainaut (province)