Cockerill Sambre Group

Cockerill Sambre Group

Chaussée de la Hulpe 187
B-1170 Brussels
Belgium
(2) 674 02 11
Fax: (2) 660 36 40

Public Company
Incorporated: 1981 as Cockerill Sambre S.A.
Employees: 31,000
Sales: BFr200.00 billion (US$6.48 billion)
Stock Exchanges: Brussels Paris Luxembourg

The Cockerill Sambre Group is the sixth-largest industrial group in Belgium. The primary activity of the group is the production of integrated steel and thin flat-steel products. Its specialties include metal and organic coating of steel sheets, with paint or plastic, and the manufacturing of products derived from these for the automobile and construction industries. The group also has its own large distribution network, operating primarily in France and the Netherlands in addition to Belgium. There is also a mechanical engineering division, producing steelmaking equipment and coating lines, diesel engines, and traction locomotives, transmission systems, boilers, and armaments—activities which date back to the start of the Cockerill company in 1817.

The Cockerill Sambre Group as it exists today results from the 1981 merger of the two major iron and steel groupings of the Walloon region of Belgium. From its beginnings, the Cockerill Group had been based at Seraing on the River Meuse a few miles upstream from Liège, while the company Hainaut-Sambre was based at the town of Charleroi, some 65 miles east of Liège on the banks of the River Sambre. The Sambre flows into the Meuse and provides a geographical link between these two regions, formerly rich in coal. In both areas, iron and steel production dates back before the 18th century, based on the coal mines of the areas, but the majority of the companies which have been absorbed gradually into the group were originally founded between 1800 and 1838.

The key figure of the Liège region was an Englishman, John Cockerill, whose name the group still bears to this day. His father William was an English engineer who had emigrated and established a successful textile machinery manufacturing firm at Verviers, 15 miles from Liège. In 1814 John Cockerill acquired from King William of Orange the old chateau at Seraing, formerly the summer residence of the prince-bishops of Liège. This has remained the registered office of Cockerill Sambre, and still houses the mechanical engineering division. The new factory opened in 1817, at first producing steam engines for spinning mills and winding and pumping engines for collieries. As coal was available on site, the company decided to produce the metal it required as well. The company was the first in Europe to erect a coke-fired blast furnace, which began production in 1826. By 1847 there were six blast furnaces in use. The state of Belgium was not created until 1830, following a revolutionary episode which necessitated the closure of the works at Seraing for a time. When production resumed, the company produced some of the first locomotives for the Belgian State Railways.

When John Cockerill died in 1840, the financial crisis which followed resulted in the winding up of the company. However, it was soon reconstituted as a limited company in 1842, and production began to revive in earnest the following year. By 1845, good progress was being made, and Cockerill engines obtained a Grand Medal at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. All kinds of heavy machinery were produced during this period: ships, including ironclad gunboats for Russia and cross-channel mailboats for the Dover-Ostend route; tunnelling machines; bridges; and various plant for steel works. In 1866 a new director-general, Eugene Sadoine, initiated the development of adjacent coal mines at Colard, and acquired two-fifths of the neighboring Esperance coal mines as well as iron mines in Spain. A new steel works was opened in 1883, accompanied by much modernization of the existing works. The social requirements of the workers were not neglected, there being workmen’s houses, refectories, schools for both adults and children, a 250-bed hospital, a dispensary, and an orphanage with more than 100 places. During the International Exhibition held in Liège in 1905, the (British) Institution of Mechanical Engineers held its annual convention in the town, during which various visits were arranged for the members, including one to the Cockerill works. They were to see “large gas engines, steam turbines, blast-furnaces, steel works, collieries, etc.” The party of British engineers also visited the Société d’Ougrée-Marihaye, to see another steel works which exactly 50 years later, in 1955, was to become part of the Cockerill company. The origins of the company Ougree-Marihaye, which was founded in 1835, lie in an iron foundry established at the beginning of the 19th century in the commune of Ougrée, between Seraing and the town of Liège itself, and the coal mines of Marihaye which had existed since 1778. This company occupied an important place in the Belgian iron and steel industry right up until the 1955 merger.

The other key company from the Liège area was Esperance-Longdoz. Its origins can be traced back to the Dotheée family, which was already trading in ironmongery, copper ware, zinc objects and utensils, sheet metal, and hardware during the early 18th century. Esperance-Longdoz was formed in 1836, based on coal mines at Esperance, near Seraing, and with the involvement of John Cockerill. The first blast furnace opened here in 1838, followed in 1846 by a tin-plate works in the Longdoz district of Liège. The company was involved in joint ventures with Cockerill to exploit mineral rights, and became a major coke producer of this period. Esperance-Longdoz proved to be one of the most dynamic companies in the history of the group, surviving as a separate entity for 135 years until one of the penultimate mergers in 1970; as late as 1963 a brand new steelworks was built by Esperance-Longdoz on a greenfield site at Chertal, to the north of Liège.

However, the 18th-century companies of the Liège region are only half of the story, and it is necessary to follow the rivers Meuse and Sambre upstream to Charleroi and examine the group’s industrial antecedents there. Most of the local companies here remained part of the Hainaut-Sambre side of the group until the formation of Cockerill Sambre in 1981, with the interesting exception of the Forges de la Providence. This company was founded in 1838 with the help of another Englishman, Thomas Bonehill, who had also been introducing industrial innovations to the Europeans. His successor, Alphonse Halbou, rose to fame by patenting the rolled I-section girder—often known today as the RSJ—in 1849, which accelerated the construction of high-rise buildings, undertaken first in Paris and eventually throughout Europe. Forges de la Providence remained separate until 1966, when it was merged with Cockerill-Ougree in Liège, forming Cockerill-Ougreée-Providence. At this time, Forges de la Providence was a major steel producer based at Marchienne-au-Pont in Charleroi, but also owned two factories in France along with six other important French subsidiaries. By a twist of fate, rationalizations during the late 1970s led to the disposal of the Providence works to the Charleroi-based Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau (TMM) group. This could be said to have restored the geographic balance, but too late, as TMM itself—which first became Thy-Marcinelle et Providence—was to become part of Hainaut-Sambre in 1980, and so by 1981 found itself back with its old parent Cockerill, following the final merger which created Cockerill Sambre. As for the other Charleroi companies, TMM had been formed in 1966 from the merger of Thy-Marcinelle and Acieries et Minieres de la Sambre. The origins of TMM include the forge of Thy-le-Chateau, which had existed as early as 1763, and Marcinelle, on the south bank at Charleroi. During the 17th and 18th centuries the whole region between the Sambre and the Meuse was known for its ironmasters, and it was one of these, Ferdinand Puissant, who had enlisted the services of Thomas Bonehill at Forges de la Providence. A Frenchman, Albert Goffart, had established his blast furnace in the nearby town of Monceau-sur-Sambre in 1836.

The other main grouping of firms in the surrounding area became the Hainaut-Sambre company in 1955, Hainaut being the name of the province in which Charleroi is situated. The two companies involved in the first merger were the Usines Métallurgiques de Hainaut, founded in 1829, and Sambre-et-Moselle, founded in 1835. The merger between Hainaut-Sambre and Thy-Marcinelle et Providence took place in 1979, not long after the transfer of Providence to TMM by Cockerill.

A chronological perspective provides a clearer overview of the complexities of all these mergers and regroupings. Beginning with the rise of the 19th-century companies, there were, to start with, four principal companies in each of the two regions of Liège and Charleroi. The first significant mergers did not take place until 1955, following reorganization plans initiated after the formation of the European Commission for Coal and Steel in 1952. These resulted in the formation of Hainaut-Sambre in the Charleroi region, and Cockerill-Ougrée at Liège. Another ten years passed before the mid-1960s witnessed two further rationalizations: the incorporation of Providence to form Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence at Liège, and the coming-together of some of the earliest Charleroi-based companies to form Thy-Marcinelle et Monceau.

During this period the other important Liège steelmaker, Esperance-Longdoz, had constructed a modern steel complex at Chertal to the north of the town, opened in 1963 to replace its works on sites nearer the town. These had become surrounded by other developments and were consequently suffering from a shortage of space in which to expand and introduce the wider strip mills which had become necessary in order to remain competitive in the market. At the end of the 1960s, a government committee which had been formed to study the problems of the Belgian metallurgical industries decided that further concentration was necessary in this region in order to maintain the competitiveness of the industry nationally, reduce overproduction, improve efficiency, and target investment and subsidies. Problems were also due to the rises in the price of oil at this time, as the industry had become increasingly reliant on this form of energy following the decline in coal production. The two companies therefore decided to effect a complete merger, following a one-year period of joint management beginning in July 1979. This led to the formation in June 1970 of Cockerill-Ougrée-Providence et Esperance-Longdoz. It was logical at that time for the new group to dispose of the Providence works—which were in Charleroi, not Liège—to the TMM company at Charleroi. For the next ten years, the company was known simply as Cockerill, appearing to renew the link with the years 1817 to 1955.

The early 1970s saw increasing steel production in Belgium, peaking in 1974, when there were nine major steelworks in operation. This resulted in overproduction, as the market was becoming saturated, and meant that drastic measures had to be taken. By 1979 both production and the number of plants had been halved, with reductions in the work force continuing up until 1985, by which time employment in the industry had fallen to half its 1975 level. The Charleroi region, which had not benefited from the concentration effected in Liège ten years earlier, was now obliged to undergo its own rationalization, with the absorption of Thy-Marcinelle et Providence— formerly TMM—by Hainaut-Sambre in 1980. However, this step was not enough to stabilize the industry, and the government, which had already taken a 50% stake in the industry in 1978, now decided that complete integration of the metallurgical industries of the two regions under one management was necessary. There were also the wider problems of Belgian industry connected with the difficulties between the French-speaking Wallonia region, which includes Charleroi and Liège, and the Flemish-speaking northern regions. The two complexes were united with 80% state ownership, on June 26, 1981.

The union took place in the depths of an economic recession, and the newly organized group of Cockerill Sambre began by making massive losses. The European Economic Community was insisting that large government subsidies to the industry were unfair and had to be reduced substantially. A new center-right government introduced economic austerity measures and commissioned a report on the steel industry. This proposed further reductions in capacity, including plant closures at Cockerill Sambre—one at Charleroi and one at Liège—and more job losses. Each region was to be allotted a specialty. The restructuring plan, known as the “Gandois report,” after the present chairman of Cockerill Sambre, was implemented in 1984. Production of steel was stabilized at around 1975 levels, concentrated on only three plants, and the work force was reduced to 15,000, with the hope of even more reductions. It was also agreed that ARBED, the Luxembourg state steel producer, would reduce its rolled steel capacity in exchange for the securing of orders from Cockerill.

The number of blast furnaces operating in Wallonia declined from their peak of 30 during the postwar period up to 1963: only a third of these were in use by the late 1970s, and by 1988 only 4 remained at Cockerill Sambre.

Within a few years of the implementation of the Gandois plan, the success of the measures had become evident, with the company being given a new lease of life, and diversification into other steel-based products taking place. The mid-1980s were a relatively stable period, culminating in further internal rationalizations, such as the decision to specialize in thin flat products on the steel production side; the development of new products such as coated steel roof tiles by the French-based construction products division; and concentration on heavy engineering in the mechanical engineering division. A recent development was the acquisition in 1990 of a majority holding in YMOS A.G., a major German manufacturer of metal and plastic parts for automobiles. Other recent diversification activities include ventures into financial and data processing services.

In the main, however, Cockerill Sambre seems to have survived by concentrating on what it did best—first making machines, and then producing the materials needed for them, and returning to consolidate its base of expertise after traversing the difficult periods of retrenchment which the metallurgical industries underwent during the second half of the 20th century. It seems more than coincidence that after the positive flood of mergers which took place, the two names surviving in the company today are those of an Englishman who began work in an old castle by the river in Liège, and of the other river, which provides the link with the group’s other center further upstream in Charleroi. The latest building is a new research and development center for the group, built on the campus of the University of Liège and opened in April 1990.

Principal Subsidiaries

S.A. Société Carolorégienne de Laminage (CARLAM) (75%); S.A. Laminoirs du Ruau (78%); S.A. Société Carolore’gienne de Cokéfaction (CAR-COKE) (78%); S.C. L’Oxygéne Métallurgique; S.A. Steel-inter; S.A. Disteel (70%); S.A. Produits d’Usines M&al-lurgiques (PUM); B.V. Cockerill Nederland Holding (Netherlands); S.A. Société Européenne pour le Commerce International (Eurinter); S.A. Toleries Delloye-Mat-thieu (TDM) (91%); S.A. Société des Forges d’Haironville (France) (93%); S.A. Cockerill Mechanical Industries (CMI); S.A. Vulcain Financier; S.A. Cockerill Sambre Finances et Services; Société de Service et de Conseil en Informatique, Bureautique et T#x00E9;t#x00E9;matique (S.A. “IBT”); YMOS A.G.

Further Reading

Willem, Leon, 450 Ans D’Esperance: La S.A. Metallurgique D’Esperance-Longdoz de 1519 a 1969, Alleur Editions du Perron, 1990.

—Peter W. Miller