Cockerill-Sambre was a group of Belgian steel manufacturers headquartered in Seraing, on the river

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

, and in

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, on the river

Sambre The Sambre () is a river in northern France and in Wallonia, Belgium. It is a left-bank tributary of the Meuse, which it joins in the Wallonian capital Namur. The source of the Sambre is near Le Nouvion-en-Thiérache, in the Aisne department. ...

. The Cockerill-Sambre group was formed in 1981 by the merger of two Belgian steel groups – SA Cockerill-Ougrée based at Seraing in the province of Liège, and Hainaut-Sambre based at Charleroi in the province of Hainaut – both being the result of post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

consolidations of the Belgian steel industry. The company inherited a steel industry with significant debts and production overcapacity based on blast furnace production rather than electric furnace recycling, with numerous factory sites in constrained city locations, and adversely affected by competition in the export market from new steel-producing countries (such as South Korea and Brasil). The need to streamline was complicated by regional dependence on employment in the steel industry. It was merged into

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 ...

in 1999, and after 2002 was part of the Arcelor group. As of 2010, the bulk of the group is part of the

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourg-based multinational steel manufacturing corporation, headquartered in Luxembourg City. It is ranked second on the list of steel producers behind Baowu, and had an annual crude steel production of 58 millio ...

multinational steel group, where it is known as ArcelorMittal Liège.

History

Cockerill

The Cockerill group's name came from the English-born Belgian industrialist John Cockerill, who founded John Cockerill & Cie. in 1817. During the first few decades of its existence, the firm rose to become a major integrated steel company, not only producing iron in blast furnaces, but also producing machines and other articles from the metal. After John Cockerill's death in 1840, the company became the state-owned Société anonyme John Cockerill, and an international-scale producer of iron and steel metal and products. The 8 day Strike of the 100,000 originated at Cockerill on 10 May 1941, and eventually spread across the entirety of Liege province. The strike was both a way of seeking higher wages, and passively resisting the

German occupation of Belgium during World War II The German occupation of Belgium (, ) during World War II began on 28 May 1940, when the Belgian army surrendered to German forces, and lasted until Belgium's liberation by the Western Allies between September 1944 and February 1945. It was ...

. The strike was settled following an 8% wage increase, and future wartime strikes were often repressed by force. In 1955 the company merged with

Ougrée-Marihaye The Belgian iron and steel producing company Ougrée-Marihaye was formed in 1835 by the merger of the iron and steel works in Ougrée (nr. Seraing) in Liège Province, and the coal mines of Marihaye. The company merged with the '' Société anonym ...

and ''Ferblatil''Ferblatil: ''Laminoirs à Froid de Fer-blanc à Tilleur'', Cold rolling and tinplate production to form Cockerill-Ougrée. The new company had a total steel production of over 2 million tonnes, and it employed over 45,000 people in 1957. In 1961 ''Tolmatil'' became part of Cockerill-Ougrée,Tolmatil: based in Tilleur, production of grain orientated magnetic steels for electrical applications. Source: Paul Mingret, ''Quelques problèmes de l'Europe à travers l'exemple de Liège et de sa région'', p. 8 in 1962 it participated in the founding of Sidmar contributing 1bn Belgian francs of the companies 4.5bn capital. Further consolidation of companies occurred in 1966 when it merged with ''

Les Forges de la Providence Forges de la Providence () was a Belgian steel producing company based in the Hainaut (province), Hainaut region around Charleroi. Founded as ''Société Anonyme des laminoirs, forges, fonderies et usines de la Providence'' the company had three st ...

'', a Belgian steelmaker with plants in northern France with three steel plants; in Réhon and Hautmont, (France) and in

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

, (Belgium) adding over 35,000 persons to the company. The new company was named Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence, and had a production capacity of 5 million tonnes of steel. In 1969 the

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, ...

( Flémalle-Haute) became part of the

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 Cocke ...

group (fully absorbed 1989). In 1970 the company merged with the Liège-based ''

Société Métallurgique d'Espérance Longdoz Groupe Lactalis S.A. (doing business as Lactalis) is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A. Lactalis is the largest dairy pr ...

'', forming Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence et Espérance Longdoz; the new group was the fifth largest steelmaker in the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation 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 Lisbo ...

, with a steel production capacity of 7million tonnes; the new group contained all the steel producing companies in the Liège basin. In 1975 the company sold its 25% stake in Sidmar to Arbed. In 1979 the '' Forges de la Providence'' company was sold to '' Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau'' (TMM), disposing of the group's interests outside the Liège area; the resulting Liège-based group being known simply as Cockerill. The company then merged with the

-based steel group Hainaut-Sambre in 1981 to form Cockerill-Sambre.

Cockerill-Sambre

The merger to form Cockerill-Sambre was announced on 16 January 1981, and the company came into being on 26 June 1981. The company inherited a debt equivalent to 1363million Eur from Cockerill and a similar amount from Hainaut-Sambre. A rescue plan was drawn up by consultant Jean Gandois in 1983, the aim was to return the company by 1985, which was a prerequisite for sanction by the European Commission of a government-backed investment plan (the second Claes plan). One consequence of the restructuring was that, of 22,000 workers (1983), nearly 8,000 would no longer be required by 1986, in addition to production cuts and closures. EKO Stahl ( Eisenhüttenstadt) was acquired in 1994. In 1999 the group became part of the French steel group

; in 2002 there was another merger, this time with Arbed and Aceralia of Luxembourg and Spain, to form the continental western European steel giant Arcelor.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

ArcelorMittal Liège company website
– ''current entity'' * * {{PM20, FID=co/019417, TEXT=Documents and clippings about, NAME= . Steel companies of Belgium ArcelorMittal History of Charleroi History of Liège Seraing Manufacturing companies established in 1981 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1999 1981 establishments in Belgium 1999 disestablishments in Belgium Defunct manufacturing companies of Belgium Companies based in Liège Province