![IJmuiden hoogovens 20050928 40441](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/IJmuiden_hoogovens_20050928_40441.JPG)
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 steelworks based in
IJmuiden
IJ_(digraph).html" ;"title="n IJ (digraph)">n IJ (digraph) and that should remain the only places where they are used. >
IJmuiden () is a port city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
was built between 1920 and 1940, first producing iron, later steel, with hot and cold rolling producing flat products. In the 1960s the company diversified into
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
production.
The company briefly merged its IJmuiden steel plant with German steel company
Hoesch from 1972 forming the joint venture
Estel
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. The company existed from 1972 to 1982 until de-merged.
History
In 1966 the board of K ...
but separated in 1982. In 1999, the company merged with the larger
British Steel plc
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British Englis ...
to create the
Corus Group
Corus may refer to:
Places
*Çörüş, Gazipaşa, a village in Antalya Province, Turkey
Facilities and structures
* Corus Quay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; an office tower
Fictional locations
* Corus, a fictional world that is the setting for the ...
steel company. The aluminium production assets were sold off during the Corus period. In 2007, Corus Group was purchased by India-based
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
and was renamed
Tata Steel Europe
Tata Steel Europe Ltd. (formerly Corus Group plc) was a steelmaking company headquartered in London, England, with its main operations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The company was created in 2007, when Tata Group took over the ...
in 2010. In 2021, the company was split into a British and a Dutch branch, these fall directly under the Indian parent company
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
and Tata Steel Europe ceased to exist.
History
IJmuiden steelworks
1914-1945
In 1914 H.J.E. Wenckebach and J.C Ankersmit began planning construction of a steelworks in the Netherlands, in 1916 Ankersmit departed for the USA, leaving Wenckebach to continue the work, and on 19 April 1917 Wenckebach presented his plans which included the establishment of three
blast furnaces
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric p ...
, a
coking plant
Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ...
, and plants for using the by products of the process (coking gas and slag). In May 1917 a ''Comité voor oprichting van een hoogovenstaal- en walswerk in Nederland'' (Committee for establishing blast furnaces and steel rolling mill in the Netherlands) was set up, with the aim of creating a steel works and rolling mills.
[ Korte geschiedenis .. (SIEHO), para. 1-5] The plan received support from the large industrial concerns and capitalists of the Netherlands, including
Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...
,
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
,
Steenkolen Handels-Vereeniging (SHV),
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
;
Hendrikus Colijn
Hendrikus "Hendrik" Colijn (22 June 1869 – 18 September 1944) was a Dutch politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP; now defunct and merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from ...
,
Frits Fentener van Vlissingen, and
J. Muysken. Additionally the Dutch state and the city of Amsterdam contributed 7.5 million and 5 million of the 30 million
Dutch guilder
The guilder ( nl, gulden, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from the 15th century until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Dutch name ''gulden'' was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning "golden", and reflects the fact that, wh ...
s required to capitalise the project.
On 20 September 1918 the company ''Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken N.V.'' (KNHS) was created in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
. Wenckenbach was the Director,
Geldolph Adriaan Kessler
Geldolph Adriaan "Dolf" Kessler (2 April 1884 – 21 August 1945) was a Dutch footballer and industrialist. Kessler – along with brother Boeli and cousins Tonny and Dé – played club football for amateur side HVV Den Haag. Kessler also won ...
the secretary, and
A.H. Ingen Housz the company's assignee.
One of the motivations for the creation of a steelworks was to end the country's reliance on imported steel.
Since the country's resources of coal and iron ore were limited, a site suitable for import and export by sea was chosen, and
IJmuiden
IJ_(digraph).html" ;"title="n IJ (digraph)">n IJ (digraph) and that should remain the only places where they are used. >
IJmuiden () is a port city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality ...
was chosen over sites at
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
and
Moerdijk
Moerdijk () is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant.
History
The municipality of Moerdijk was founded in 1997 following the merger of the municipalities of Fijnaart en Heijningen, Klundert ...
due to better ground conditions.
The site was on the north bank of the
North Sea Canal
The North Sea Canal ( nl, Noordzeekanaal) is a Dutch ship canal from Amsterdam to the North Sea at IJmuiden, constructed between 1865 and 1876 to enable seafaring vessels to reach the port of Amsterdam. This man-made channel terminates at Amster ...
, outside its sea locks, and two harbours were built - the inner harbour opened in 1920, and the outer harbour in 1923.
By 1924 the first blast furnace, casting hall, coke plant, and an electricity generating plant powered by waste gases from the coke ovens and blast furnaces were ready, and the second of two blast furnaces, begun in 1919, became operational in 1926.
Both blast furnaces were constructed to a design by American company ''Freyn, Brassert &Co.''. The coking plant continued to be expanded throughout the 1920s and 30s, and after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
[ Korte geschiedenis .. (SIEHO)]
KNHS eerste fase
, Kooksfabriek 1 1924; Hoogoven 1 1924 - 1972 Hoogoven 2 1926 - 1972; Giethal 1924 - 1948; Centrale 1 1924 Coal tar
Coal tar is a thick dark liquid which is a by-product of the production of coke and coal gas from coal. It is a type of creosote. It has both medical and industrial uses. Medicinally it is a topical medication applied to skin to treat psoriasi ...
, a by-product from coking, was used by the chemical works Cindu (''
Chemische Industrie Uithoorn
Chemische Industrie Uithoorn (Cindu, later ''Cindu Chemicals'') was a chemical company in Uithoorn, Netherlands specialising in processing from coal tar. The company was founded in 1922 as ''Teerbedrijf Uithoorn'' (''TEBU''), and operated under a ...
''), and cleaned coke oven gas was used in the site's power plant and in nearby municipalities.
A brickworks (''NV Phoenix Maatschappij voor Vervaardiging van Hoogovensteen''), was built to use
slag
Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...
from the blast furnace to make building products, but the enterprise ceased in 1927.
[ Korte geschiedenis .. (SIEHO)]
KNHS eerste fase
, Phoenix Steenfabriek 1924 - 1927; Bijproductenfabriek 1924 A third blast furnace started operation in 1930.
In 1928 the KNHS and
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
set up a joint venture
Mekog which was to manufacturer fertiliser using chemicals derived from coke oven gas.
A second subsidiary was founded in 1930, an on-site cement factory established as a joint venture between KNHS and the Dutch concrete company ''
Eerste Nederlandse Cement Industrie'' (ENCI): it was named ''
Cementfabriek IJmuiden'' (CEMIJ) and manufactured cement using granulated furnace slag as an additive.
During the 1930s the plant was further developed, turning from raw iron production to steel production using open hearth furnaces; again ''Freyr, Brassert & Co.'' was chosen to supply the plant's design. A pipe foundry was opened in 1936, and in 1938 construction of a steel conversion plant using the
Siemens-Martin
An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to produce steel. Because steel is difficult to manufacture owing to its high me ...
(Open Hearth) process was begun. The first 60-ton capacity open hearth furnace opened 19 March 1939, additional furnaces were added during the 1940s and early 1950s, and the capacity of the furnaces increased - by 1956 the plant had six furnaces, each of 190-ton capacity. Construction of the plant's first rolling mill (''Walserij West'') was begun in the late 1930s. During the World War II occupation the mill was confiscated and shipped to
Watenstedt (Salzgitter), Germany where it was installed in the
Reichswerke Hermann Göring
Reichswerke Hermann Göring was an industrial conglomerate in Nazi Germany from 1937 until 1945. It was established to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter that were deemed uneconomical by the privately held steel mills. The st ...
steel plant. After the war the mill was returned to the Netherlands, and remained in operation until decommissioned in 1992.
The
Van Leer company established a steel rolling mill (''Walsbedrijven NV'') at the IJmuiden site in the late 1930s; a plate mill began production in 1938, followed by a strip and profile mill in 1939. As built it was outdated, using second hand equipment. The mill was built to supply the Van Leer company's own steel needs, and not as an independent commercial concern. In 1941, under the Nazi occupation during World War II, Van Leer's Jewish owner
Bernard van Leer was forced to flee the country, and the mill was acquired by KNHS, and integrated into the rest of the IJmuiden site: it became known as ''Walserij Oost'', remaining in use until 1953, and being replaced by the mills of ''Breedband NV''.
During World War II the company was affected by the German occupation: in 1941
Vereinigte Stahlwerke
The Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG (VSt or Vestag, ''United Steelworks'') was a German industrial conglomerate producing coal, iron, and steel in the interbellum and during World War II.
Founded in 1926, economic pressures (decreasing prices and exces ...
had acquired 40% of the company from the shareholdings of the state and city of Amsterdam. The directors of the company Housz and Holtrop went into hiding in 1943. The mouth of the North Sea canal at IJmuiden was used as a base for the
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
, and the steelworks itself was a strategic target for attack, and bombings and lack of raw materials brought production to a halt.
1945–1999
![Hoogovens entree Dudok](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Hoogovens_entree_Dudok.JPG)
After the end of World War II reconstruction of the Netherlands began, and as part of this process investments were made in the steelworks. A separate company, Breedband NV, was established on 19 June 1950, receiving funding from both the state and the United States, under the
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
. The project introduced hot and cold rolling mills for thin plate, of 60 and 75 thousand tonnes per year capacity respectively, and a
galvanising line. All three installations were operating by the end of 1953.
During the same period architect
Willem Marinus Dudok
Willem Marinus Dudok (6 July 1884 – 6 April 1974) was a Dutch modernist architect. He was born in Amsterdam. He became City Architect for the town of Hilversum in 1928 where he was best known for the brick Hilversum Town Hall, completed i ...
was commissioned to design a head office for the company in
Velsen
Velsen () is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located on both sides of the North Sea Canal.
On the north side of the North Sea Canal there is a major steel plant, Tata Steel IJmuiden, formerly known a ...
, which was completed 1953. The ''Breedband'' project moved Hoogoven's emphasis into flat rather than long products, which continued in later decades.
During the 1950s and 1960 the facilities were extended; the plants first oxy-steel converted was put into operation in 1958, a second cold rolling line was added in 1961, electrolytic galvanising machines were added in 1958, 1962, and 1967, and hot rolling capacity had increased to 1.6 million tonnes per year by 1965. On 4 May 1965 KNHS took over the company ''Breedband NV''. Also in the post-war period an automated casting machine was installed in 1948, two new blast furnaces activated in 1958 and 1961, and a mill for steel rod and wire production was commissioned in 1964.
[Korte geschiedenis CORUS IJmuiden](_blank)
, (SIEHO), De ruwijzergietmachine; Hoogoven 4 1958; Hoogoven 5 1961; Staaf en Draad Walserij 1964 - 2000] The sixth blast furnace began operation in 1967, and a second oxy-steel plant in 1968. In 1969 a block mill capable of handling 45-tonne blocks, and another hot strip mill with a capacity of over 3.5 million tonnes a year were opened.
Labour relations at the plant were usually good; during the first two decades of the enterprise's existence the organisational structure was relatively simple, with limited hierarchies, and there were limited attempts at a benevolent social policy by the plant's management. Psychological testing of potential workers was gradually introduced, first for skilled workers, and after World War II for unskilled workers.
Vocational training
Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an ind ...
was slowly introduced after 1938. In the post-war period foreign workers from Italy, Spain, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Morocco began to be employed at the plant, and in the 1960s the practice of housing foreign workers in floating hotels was begun.
Post-war there was no major industrial action until 1973, when 2,300 workers went on strike at the IJmuiden plant. During 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 ...
there were no strikes, despite significant lay-offs.
In 1972 the first two blast furnaces were decommissioned.
In the same year (1972) the IJmuiden steelworks (''Hoogovens IJmuiden BV''.
[KNHS formed its interests that were to be merged (the IJmuiden steelworks) into a company ''Hoogovens IJmuiden BV'', source: History Steel Company (2007), "Estel is founded, 7 July 1972"]) were formed into a 50:50 joint venture named
Estel
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. The company existed from 1972 to 1982 until de-merged.
History
In 1966 the board of K ...
with
Hoesch of Germany as the other partner, which merged its Dortmund steel plant into the concern. IJmuiden, with good access to seaborn raw materials, was to act primarily as a raw steel supplier to the plant in Germany, which was closer to a large market for finished steel products. 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 ...
of the 1970s prevented any positive expansion and the company was disbanded in 1982 when funding arrangements for the loss-making Dortmund plant could not be agreed.
After the demerger from Hoesch the company required restructuring and investment: the company was producing too much raw steel with not enough semi-finished product manufacturing capacity. This led to the installation of a continuous casting, hot rolling, and steel coating lines of the next decade. The Dutch state supported the process with a loan of 570 million guilders. The workforce was reduced by 3,000 (14%) over 4 years from 1982, with the company becoming profitable again in 1984.
The subsidiary
Demka was also closed.
The company's first
continuous caster was put into operation in May 1980. In 1990 a production line for producing paint coated steel rolls was started. The third blast furnace was decommissioned in 1991.
In the late 1990s two blast furnaces were purchased by the Indonesian steel group
Gunawan Steel Group
The Gunawan Steel Group was an Indonesian steel group founded 1989, which owned several Steel works in Southeast Asia. The group's companies were taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (''Badan ...
and dismantled and shipped to its development in Malaysia,
Gunawan Iron and Steel. The dismantling work was carried out by a Chinese contractor which was found to be paying its 120 Chinese workers less than the Dutch minimum wage, with poor safety conditions, with 14 accidents resulting in 2 fatalities due to falls from height. The Chinese contractor was fined for breaches of safety practice, and made to improve working conditions, as well as retrospectively paying its workers 15,000 guilders.
[Sources:
*
*
*
*
*]
In 1996 the company changed its official name to ''Koninklijke Hoogovens''. A new continuous caster was installed between 1998 and 2000.
In 1998 a joint subsidiary with
Sidmar, named ''Galtec'', was established at Sidmar's plant near Ghent, producing galvanised steel.
In 1998 Hoogovens employed around 23,000 people, and produced approximately 8 million tonnes of steel (and 450,000 tonnes of aluminium) per year, with sales of over $10 billion. The company's main products were rolled steel, including tinplate (thin gauge steel), coated steels, and aluminium extrusions. Production was distributed 20% in the Dutch market, 60% in the rest of Europe and 20% to the rest of the world.
Corus group 1999–2007
In June 1999
British Steel plc
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British Englis ...
and Hoogovens announced that they intended to merge, which would make the combined company—provisionally named BSKH—the world's third-largest steel producer with an aggregate worldwide turnover of approximately €15.127 billion.
Upon completion, Hoogovens shareholders would own 38.3% of the new company.
Because of the size of the two companies, and the extent of their competition within the
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
, the merger required the approval of the
Commission of the European Communities
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
;
this was granted in mid-July of the same year, and on 6 October 1999 the merger was completed. The new name for the joint company, Corus, had been announced the month before.
Because British Steel had been the significantly larger of the two companies in both workforce and market capitalisation, some observers characterised the merger as being more akin to a takeover of Hoogovens by British Steel.
Analysts noted that expanding its market share in Europe by means of the merger would help insulate British Steel against the strength of the
sterling relative to the
euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
, which had been harming British Steel's exports.
In 2000 a hot dip galvanising line ''Galtec 2'', with a capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year of zinc coated coil began operation; it was the second to be produced as part of a joint venture with
Sidmar. A joint venture (42.5%) ''Galstar LP'' with
Weirton Steel for another galvanising line built in the late 1990s in
Jeffersonville, Indiana
Jeffersonville is a city and the county seat of Clark County, Indiana, Clark County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River. Locally, the city is often referred to by the abbreviated name Jeff. It lies directly across the Ohio River ...
, USA entered bankruptcy in 2001 having been closed due to poor demand after only 4 months in production.
Plans for the construction of an (€223 million) additional hot dip galvanising line and cold rolling mill were made in 2005, for an expected completion in 2008.
Tata Steel 2007–present
In 2007
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
acquired Corus and subsequently renamed it
Tata Steel Europe
Tata Steel Europe Ltd. (formerly Corus Group plc) was a steelmaking company headquartered in London, England, with its main operations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The company was created in 2007, when Tata Group took over the ...
in 2010.
In 2008 due to lack of demand the Corus steel group cut production by 20%; in IJmuiden one blast furnace was taken out of production.
In the period after the
Financial crisis of 2007–08
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
(see
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
) the down turn led to significant job losses – 800 persons in 2009, and up to 2014 a further 1000 jobs. In the 2014/2015 financial year the IJmuiden site made a profit of c. €340million, resulting a 9.19% bonus to the workforce, then numbering c. 8000 to 9000 persons.
In 2021, Tata Steel Europe ceased to exists after it was split into a British and a Dutch branch.
Tata Steel Netherlands
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 ...
(TSN) and
Tata Steel UK
Tata or TATA may refer to:
Places
* Jamshedpur, a city in Jharkhand, India also known as Tatanagar or Tata
* Tata, Hungary, a town in Hungary
* Tata Islands, a pair of small islands off the coast of New Zealand
* Tata, Morocco, a city in Tata ...
fall directly under the Indian parent company
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
.
The plant itself is still named Tata Steel IJmuiden.
Aluminium production
In 1964 a joint venture with Hoogovens as major (50%) partner established an aluminium company ''Aldel'' in the north east of the Netherlands; the enterprised was backed by the state which guaranteed a long term supply of energy a low price: a large natural gas discovery had been made in the region. Mining company
Billiton
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Propri ...
was the other partner in the venture, along with technical support from
Alusuisse
Alusuisse was a Swiss industrial group founded as ''Aluminium Industrie Aktien'' in 1898 in Zurich, Switzerland. The organisation was named ''Schweizerische Aluminium AG'' from 1963, ''Alusuisse-Lonza Holding AG'' from 1990, and ''Algroup'' from 19 ...
.
In 1970 the company acquired a shareholding in
Sidal (Belgium), and in 1987
Kaiser Aluminium
Kaiser Aluminum Corporation is an American aluminum producer. It is a spinoff from Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals Corporation, which came to be when common stock was offered in Permanente Metals Corporation and Permanente Metals Corporation's ...
's European business was acquired; the acquisition made KNHS a major aluminium producer: by 1996 it had an aluminium smelting capacity of well over 10 million tonnes per annum.
Corus period
Divisions in the board of Corus arose in 2002 when the company announced it was to sell its profitable aluminium business to
Pechiney
Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan.
Prior to its acquisition, ...
for over £500 million; Corus's British division was making a loss at this time and the sale was seen by Dutch interests as being used to prop up the loss-making British interests with no backward investment in the European mainland side of the business. The board of Corus Netherlands vetoed the sale.
In 2006 Corus's aluminium rolling and extrusion facilities were sold to
Aleris
Aleris Corporation (also Aleris Inc. or Aleris International Inc.) was an American aluminum rolled products producer, based in Beachwood, Ohio. The company had approximately 5,000 employees globally as of mid 2015.
On 15 April 2020, Aleris Corpor ...
. In 2009 smelters in
Delfzijl
Delfzijl (; gos, Delfsiel) is a city and former municipality with a population of 25,651 in the province of Groningen (province), Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. Delfzijl was a sluice between the Delf (canal), Delf and the Ems (riv ...
(Netherlands) and
Voerde
Voerde ([]) is a town in the Wesel (district), district of Wesel, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, approximately south-east of Wesel, and 20 km north of Duisburg.
City structure
According t ...
(Germany) were sold to Briand Investments B.V., an associate of
Klesch, a large commodity trader. This ended the businesses' association with aluminium, leaving it primarily as a steel producer.
Subsidiaries and joint ventures
Demka, an earlier Dutch steel producer became a KNHS subsidiary in 1964, the company was shut down in 1984.
Mekog and
CEMIJ were established at the IJmuiden site in 1928 and 1930, manufacturing fertiliser, and cement respectively, using steel production by products.
CEMIJ was sold off in 1989.
A shareholding in coal tar distillation plant Cindu (''
Chemische Industrie Uithoorn
Chemische Industrie Uithoorn (Cindu, later ''Cindu Chemicals'') was a chemical company in Uithoorn, Netherlands specialising in processing from coal tar. The company was founded in 1922 as ''Teerbedrijf Uithoorn'' (''TEBU''), and operated under a ...
''), then named ''Teerbedrijf Uithoorn'', was acquired in 1927; the plant used tar produced as a by-product of coke production.
In 2010 Cindu Chemicals BV was sold to Koppers Holding Inc. (
Koppers
Koppers is a global chemical and materials company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States in an art-deco 1920s skyscraper, the Koppers Tower.
Structure
Koppers is an integrated global producer of carbon compounds, chemicals, and trea ...
).
The welded tubes factory in
Zwijndrecht was acquired at the end of 1995 from
Van Leeuwen Buizen (see also
Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group
The Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group is a Dutch international industrial distributor of steel pipes, valves and fittings.
History
The Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group was established by Piet van Leeuwen Jr. in Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands, in 19 ...
). In 2011 a €3million investment was made into the factory improving facilities for manufacturing tube steel for car chassis construction.
In 1983 the company,
Sidmar and
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, ...
reached agreement on a joint venture
SEGAL
Segal, and its variants including Sagal, Segel, Sigal or Siegel, is a family name which is primarily Ashkenazi Jewish.
The name is said to be derived from Hebrew ''segan leviyyah'' (assistant to the Levites) although a minority of sources cla ...
(''Société Européenne de Galvanisation'') at
Ivoz-Ramet,
Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
, Belgium which would produce
hot dip galvanized steel for the car industry.
The shares of the company were wholly owned by Corus by 2004.
Metal plating company
Hille and Muller became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1997, after acquiring a 50% share acquired in 1988.
A 50% share in Belgian steelmaker
Usine Gustave Boël (UGB) in
La Louvière
La Louvière (; wa, El Lovire) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
The municipality consists of the following districts: Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Houdeng-Aimeries, Hou ...
was acquired in 1997 (as a joint venture
HB Holding,), with option to buy the remaining shares.
The UGB subsidiary
Fabrique de Fer de Maubeuge (FFM) was also acquired, and renamed 'Myriad'.
Governmental financing for rescue investment in UGB La Louvière could not be agreed and the plant was sold to
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 ...
in 1999.
The company also participated in north sea gas exploration and extraction company
Nordwinning Group (1960s), its interests were sold off in 1988.
Heritage
SIEHO (''Stichting Industrieel Erfgoed Hoogovens'', English: Hoogovens industrial heritage foundation) is dedicated to the history of the plant, and runs the
Hoogovens Museum which is an affiliate of the
European Route of Industrial Heritage
The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The a ...
. ''
Corus Stoom IJmuiden
Corus may refer to:
Places
*Çörüş, Gazipaşa, a village in Antalya Province, Turkey
Facilities and structures
* Corus Quay, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; an office tower
Fictional locations
* Corus, a fictional world that is the setting for the ...
'' (Steam Corus IJmuiden) operates steam trains on the rail network of the CIJmuiden and has workshop facilities on site.
See also
*
HIsarna steelmaking process The HIsarna ironmaking process is a direct reduced iron process for iron making in which iron ore is processed almost directly into liquid iron (pig iron). The process combines two process units, the Cyclone Converter Furnace (CCF) for ore melting ...
, primary steel production process invented at Hoogovens
*
Tata Steel Chess Tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel ...
, formerly the Hoogovens chess tournament, started 1938
Notes
References
Sources
*
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**partially reproduced at
*
*
*
**''also publisher as : ''
*
*
**Chapter 4
Koninklijke Hoogovens In Its Territory: A Bird's-Eye View pp. 88–109
**Chapter 5
The "Social Becoming" Of Koninklijke Hoogovens Plc pp. 110–174
*
*
*
External links
;Official websites
*
*
;Museums and heritage
*
*, Corus IJmuiden steam
*
*
;Images
*
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Tata Steel Europe
Manufacturing companies of the Netherlands
Steel companies of the Netherlands
Manufacturing companies established in 1918
Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1999
1999 disestablishments in the Netherlands
Dutch companies established in 1918