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
The Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange ( French; literally "United Steelworks of Burbach-Eich-Dudelange"), better known by its acronym ARBED, was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the me ...
(Luxembourg) and
Aceralia
Aceralia was a large Spanish steel producer formed in 1997 by restructuring of a group formed from earlier mergers of the steel producers ENSIDESA and ''Altos Hornos de Vizcaya''. The company merged into Arcelor in 2001, and became part of Arcelo ...
(Spain) to form the European company
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 ...
, which became part of
ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second larg ...
ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''.
Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...
in
Hayange
Hayange (; german: Hayingen; Lorraine Franconian: ''Héngen''/''Haiéngen'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
Outlying villages include Marspich and Saint-Nicolas-en-Forêt, Konacker and Ranguevaux.
Hi ...
,
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
in north-eastern France. Over the next one hundred years industrial production grew, and, in 1822 the first coke fired blast furnace in France was constructed. Further growth occurred under
de Wendel family
The Wendel family (french: de Wendel) is an industrialist family from the Lorraine region of France. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the family gained both industrial and political power. As a result, the family also attracted controversy as an ...
ownership in the next century; in 1850 approximately 20,000 tons of iron and cast iron each were produced, by 1869 this had increased 15 blast furnaces and a production of well over 100,000 tons of cast iron and iron each. Production included rails, bars, sheet, tin and wire.
The company was split as a result of the Alsace-Lorraine region becoming part of Germany after that countries victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. After Germany's defeat in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the region returned to France, and the factories regained. Production continued to increase, with over 1.5million tons of iron and cast iron each produced in 1929.
The
Great Depression in France
The Great Depression in France started in about 1931 and lasted through the remainder of the decade. The crisis started in France a bit later than other countries. The 1920s economy had grown at the very strong rate of 4.43% per year, the 1930 ...
affected the company's ability to invest and in 1948 nine steelmakers formed the ''
Société Lorraine de Laminage Continu
Sollac (Société Lorraine de Laminage Continu) was a French steel company formed in December 1948 as a cooperative to produce steel rolls in Lorraine from steel provided by several other companies. There were various changes of ownership during t ...
'' (Sollac), pooling their resources to modernise. Further consolidation took place in the 1950s and 60s; ''Sidélor'' was formed from the Rombas and Homécourt group of companies in 1950, in 1963 the ''Union des consommateurs de produits métallurgiques et industriels'' (UCPMI) and ''Knutange'' merged to form the ''Société Mosellane de Sidérurgie'' (SMS).
Sacilor (Société des Aciéries et Laminoirs de Lorraine) was first created in 1964 as a joint venture between the ''de Wendel'' and ''Sidélor'' groups (France for the construction of a modern steel plant in
Gandrange
Gandrange (; german: Gandringen) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
See also
* Communes of the Moselle department
The following is a list of the 725 communes of the Moselle department of France.
T ...
, Lorraine. The groups themselves merged with SMS in 1967, forming ''de Wendel-Sidélor''; in 1968 this group produced 40% of French production: 20million tons of Iron.
The entire group became named Sacilor in 1973.
Usinor and predecessors
Usinor (Union Sidérurgique du Nord) was created in 1948 from the merger of Denain-Anzin (''Les Hauts Fourneaux, Forges et Aciéries de Denain-Anzin'') founded 1849 and ''Nord-Est'' (''Les Forges et Aciéries du Nord et de l'Est'') founded 1882. Both companies had their origins in ironworks founded in the first half of the 19th century in the modern day ''département'' of
Nord
Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to:
Acronyms
* National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization
* New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US
Film and televisi ...
.
The company was formed for the consolidation of the steel works in the region, with a new plant in
Denain
Denain (; pcd, Dnain) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Denain had a population of 19,877, on a land area of 11.52 km² (4.448 sq mi).
It is the largest of 47 communes which comprise the Communauté d'agglomération d ...
, opened in 1952. Another factory, dedicated to steel sheet production, was opened in
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.
In 1963 merger with ''Lorraine-Escaut'', also formed from the merger of older companies. (''Senelle-Maubeuge'', ''
Longwy
Longwy (; older german: Langich, ; lb, label=Luxemburgish, Lonkech) is a commune in the French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, administrative region of Grand Est, northeastern France.
The inhabitants are known as ''Longoviciens''.
...
'' and ''Escaut et Meuse''). The financial crisis of the 1970s affected the company negatively, and state investment grew. In 1979 another merger took place between Usinor and the smaller '' Chiers-Chatillon-Neuves Maisons''. By 1981 90% of Usinor's shares were state owned.
Nationalisation and merger of Usinor and Sacilor
The economic effects of the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
affected both the steelmaking groups, already in debt from modernisation projects, and heavily reliant on state loans; in 1981 both Usinor and Sacilor was nationalised.
Following another steel market crash in 1983, and the halt to subsidies to the steel industry brought in by the
European Commission
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 ...
in 1986; Both companies were making heavy losses; in September 1986 the merger of Usinor and Sacilor was announced forming Usinor-Sacilor.
Usinor-Sacilor, Usinor, and merger into Arcelor
Further companies were absorbed into the group, ''Sollac'' in 1990, ''Ugine'' in 1991. In 1995 the company was privatised, and in 1997 the entire group renamed Usinor.
In 1998
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 ...
, a Belgian steelmaker was acquired.
Usinor restructured as primarily a flat carbon steel producer in the last years of the 20th century, and disposed of several speciality steel product and long steel product businesses: the Usinor/Cockerill owned rolling mill manufacturer Forcast was sold to
Akers (company) Akers may refer to:
People
*Akers (surname)
Places
In the United States:
*Akers, Missouri, in Shannon County
*Akers Pond in New Hampshire
* Akers, Louisiana
Other uses
* Akers' clasp, for removable partial dentures
See also
*Aker (disambiguatio ...
Ispat International
Mittal Steel Company N.V. was an Indian company and one of the world's largest steel producers by volume and turnover. After a merger in 2005, it is now part of ArcelorMittal.
History
Mittal Steel Company was formed as Ispat International in 19 ...
for approximately $107 million (693
francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
); railway wheelset and axle manufacturing subsidiaries Valdunes and RTM were sold to ''Freedom Forge Holding'' (
Standard Steel Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object th ...
, USA) in 1998; railway rail manufacturing subsidiary
Sogerail
Sogerail (later Corus France SA, 1999; Tata Steel France Rail, 2006) is a railway rail manufacturer near Hayange, in the Lorraine region of France. The company was formed 1994 as a subsidiary of Usinor-Sacilor.
The business was acquired by Co ...
(Hayange, France) was sold to
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 English, ...
in 1999. the special long products and forged products subsidiary Ascometal was sold to Lucchini S.p.A. in 1999; and the
electrical steel
Electrical steel (E-steel, lamination steel, silicon electrical steel, silicon steel, relay steel, transformer steel) is an iron alloy tailored to produce specific magnetic properties: small hysteresis area resulting in low power loss per cycle ...
Thyssen Krupp
ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg an ...
in 2000.Sources:
*
*
In 2001/2 the group merged with
Arbed
The Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange ( French; literally "United Steelworks of Burbach-Eich-Dudelange"), better known by its acronym ARBED, was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the me ...
of Luxembourg and
Aceralia
Aceralia was a large Spanish steel producer formed in 1997 by restructuring of a group formed from earlier mergers of the steel producers ENSIDESA and ''Altos Hornos de Vizcaya''. The company merged into Arcelor in 2001, and became part of Arcelo ...
of Spain to form
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 ...