Cockerill-Sambre
Encyclopedia
Cockerill-Sambre was a group of Belgian steel manufacturers headquartered in Seraing
Seraing
Seraing is a Walloon municipality of Belgium in Province of Liege. The municipality of Seraing includes the old communes of Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-Meuse, and Ougrée. With Liège, Herstal, Saint-Nicolas, Ans, and Flémalle it forms the greater Liège agglomeration...

 (province of Liège
Liège (province)
Liège is the easternmost province of Belgium and belongs to the Walloon Region. It is an area of French and German ethnicity. It borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and in Belgium the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Walloon Brabant , and those of Flemish Brabant and Limburg . Its...

), on the Meuse River
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...

, and in Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

, on the shore of the Sambre River
Sambre
The Sambre is a river in northern France and Wallonia, southern Belgium, left tributary of the Meuse River. The ancient Romans called the river Sabis.-Course:...

.

The Cockerill-Sambre group was formed in 1981 by the merger of two Belgian steel groups; Cockerill based in Seraing
Seraing
Seraing is a Walloon municipality of Belgium in Province of Liege. The municipality of Seraing includes the old communes of Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-Meuse, and Ougrée. With Liège, Herstal, Saint-Nicolas, Ans, and Flémalle it forms the greater Liège agglomeration...

 (Liege province
Liège (province)
Liège is the easternmost province of Belgium and belongs to the Walloon Region. It is an area of French and German ethnicity. It borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and in Belgium the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Walloon Brabant , and those of Flemish Brabant and Limburg . Its...

), and Hainaut-Sambre
Hainaut-Sambre
Hainaut-Sambre was a Belgian group of steel companies based in the Charleroi region, it was founded in 1955 by the merger of Usine Métallurgiques du Hainaut , and the metal making division of Sambre et Moselle .The company absorbed another Charleroi based steel group Thy-Marcinelle et Providence...

 based in Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

 in the province of Hainaut; both being the result of post second world war 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 by the steel industry.

It was merged into Usinor
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 1998, and after 2002 was part of the Arcelor
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...

 group. As of 2010 the bulk of the group is part of the ArcelorMittal multinational steel group, where it is known as ArcelorMittal Liege.

Background - Cockerill

The Cockerill group's name came from the British born industrialist John Cockerill who founded the John Cockerill company (John Cockerill & Cie) in 1817. In the first few decades of its existence it 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 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.

In 1955 the company merged with Ougrée-Marihaye
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 Ougree in the province of Liège, and the coal mines of Marihaye. The company merged with the Société anonyme John Cockerill in 1955 to form Cockerill-Ougrée.-History:In 1809...

 and FerblatilFerblatil: Laminoirs à Froid de Fer-blanc à Tilleur, Cold rolling and tinplate production to from Cockerill-Ougrée; the new company had a total steel production of over 2 million tonnes, and employed over 45,000 people in 1957.

In 1961 Tolmatil was 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 franc
Belgian franc
The franc was the currency of Belgium until 2002 when the euro was introduced into circulation. It was subdivided into centimes , 100 centiem or Centime .-History:...

s of the companies 4.5bn capital. Further consolidation of companies occurred in 1966 when it merged with Les Forges de la Providence, a Belgian steelmaker with plants in northern France with three steel plants; in Réhon
Réhon
Réhon is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.- External links :* *...

 and Hautmont
Hautmont
-Twin towns - sister cities:Kamianets-Podilskyi is twinned with: Kalisz in Poland -References:*...

, (France) and in Marchienne-au-Pont
Marchienne-au-Pont
Marchienne-au-Pont is a section of the Belgian town of Charleroi within the Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut. It was a commune of its own before the merge of the communes in 1977, when it had a population of 17,000.-Sights:...

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

In 1970 the company merged with the Liege based Société Métallurgique d'Espérance Longdoz, forming Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence et Espérance Longdoz; the new group was the fifth largest steelmaker in the EEC
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...

, with a steel production capacity of 7million tonnes; the new group contained all the steel producing companies in the Liege basin.

In 1975 the company sold its 25% stake in Sidmar to Arbed
Arbed
ARBED was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the merger of three steel producing companies, ARBED was a major actor in the economic history of the Grand-Duchy until it merged in 2002 with two other European steel companies to create Arcelor.- Origins ...

. In 1979 the Forges de la Providence
Forges de la Providence
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...

company was sold to Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau (TMM), disposing of the groups interests outside the Liege area; the resulting Liege based group being known simply as Cockerill.

The company then merged with the Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

 based steel group Hainaut-Sambre
Hainaut-Sambre
Hainaut-Sambre was a Belgian group of steel companies based in the Charleroi region, it was founded in 1955 by the merger of Usine Métallurgiques du Hainaut , and the metal making division of Sambre et Moselle .The company absorbed another Charleroi based steel group Thy-Marcinelle et Providence...

 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.

The phenix works and EKO Stahl (in Eisenhüttenstadt
Eisenhüttenstadt
Eisenhüttenstadt is a town in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, Germany at the border with Poland. The town was founded in 1950 alongside a new steel mill as a socialist model city and has a population of 32,214...

) were absorbed in 1989 and 1994 respectively.

In 1999 the group became part of the French steel group Usinor
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 2002 another merger, this time with Arbed
Arbed
ARBED was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the merger of three steel producing companies, ARBED was a major actor in the economic history of the Grand-Duchy until it merged in 2002 with two other European steel companies to create Arcelor.- Origins ...

 and Aceralia
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....

 of Luxembourg and Spain, to form the continental western European steel giant Arcelor
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...

.

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