Estel (also styled as ESTEL) was a steel company formed by the merging of

Koninklijke Hoogovens Koninklijke Hoogovens known as Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken (KNHS) until 1996 or informally Hoogovens. was a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918. Since 2010, the plant is named Tata Steel IJmuiden. The IJmuiden steelwor ...

IJmuiden steel plant and Hoesch's main steel plant in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

. The company existed from 1972 to 1982 until de-merged.

History

In 1966 the board of

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 (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

., via ''www.encyclopedia.com'' In the mid 1970s the

Steel crisis The steel crisis was a recession in the global steel market during the 1973–75 recession and early 1980s recession following the post–World War II economic expansion and the 1973 oil crisis, further compounded by the 1979 oil crisis, and last ...

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 The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

(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

* * * *{{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 Nijmegen