Now on my website.
The Vitkovice steel works were founded in 1828 by the Archduke Rudolf von Österreich called the Rudolf Ironworks (Rudolfshütte).
The first coke fired blast furnace was commissioned in 1836.
In 1843 the viennese banker Salomon Mayer Rothschild bought the site.
A bessemer steel making shop was installed in 1864. From 1874 on the company was called Vitkovice Mining & Iron Corporation (Witkowitzer Bergbau- und Hüttengewerkschaft).
In 1909 a new melt shop including Talbot and open hearth furnaces was built. The company developed into a leading suplier of heavy machinery and steel constructions in Europe.
During the German occupation the works became part of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring.
In 1945 the site was nationalised by the Czechoslowakian government and now called Vítkovicke zelezarny Klement Gottwald (VZKG).
In 1967 the Talbot furnaces were shut down and replaced with tandem furnaces.
The 3,5 meter heavy plate mill was launched in 1972.
The first bottom blowing oxygen converter (72 tons) was commissioned in 1982 and a second vessel with combined blowing followed in 1991. The Tandem furnaces were shut down in 1993. The last blast furnace was closed down in 1998. In 2005 the steel making and rolling activities were sold to the Russian Evraz group.
The new coking plant Schwelgern in Duisburg, Germany was commmissioned by ThyssenKrupp in 2003 replacing the old August-Thyssen coke ovens.
Two batteries of 70 ovens each were built.
Some images now at Stahlseite.
Images now at my website.
The ArcelorMittal plant in Nova Huta, a borough of Krakow, Poland was founded in 1949.
The mill was named Huta Lenin and the first iron from blast furnace No.1 was tapped in 1954.In 1955 an open hearth steel making shop was added and in 1956 a hot strip mill started production.
Blast furnaces No.2 and No.3 were completed in 1956 and 1958.
In between 1954-56 four coke oven batteries were built.
In 1961 a fourth blast furnace was added.
In 1966 the BOF melt shop containing two 100 ton vessels (a third vessel was added in 1971) was launched and the new large volume (2000m³) blast furnace No.5 was built.
In 1970 some of the old open hearth furnaces were replaced by two new Tandem furnaces.
In between 1978 and 1998 all BOFs were enlarged to 160 ton capacity.
In 1990 the mill got it’s new name Huta Tadeusz Sendzimira.
In June 1991 the open hearth steel plant was closed down.The Mittal steel group took over the site in 2005.Two years later a new state of the art wide hot strip mill was comissioned.
After the remaining iron ore stocks at the Lucchini steel mill in Piombino, Italy were exhausted the company started to shut down blast furnace No. 4 last night. Chances are slim that it ever will be restarted.
Victoria, Anne, Bess and Mary.
Further viewing at Stahlseite.
Tata Steel’s integrated steel plant in Scunthorpe, GB was founded in 1864 under the name Frodingham Iron Works.
Iron was produced from local iron ore deposits since 1865. A Thomas converter steel making shop started it’s production in 1890.
In 1912 Frodingham took over the nearby Appleby Iron Co. (founded in 1874) to form the Appleby Frodingham Steel Co.
This enterprise became part of the United Steel Companies in 1937. In 1939 two new large volume blast furnaces were installed (Mary & Bess). In 1954 Anne and Victoria were added to complete the “Four Queens”.
In 1967 the United Steel Companies became part of the newly founded British Steel Corporation.
The Anchor project (1969-1973), one of the largest investments into the British steel industry ever, brought a new BOF shop, new rolling mills and the Immingham iron ore terminal by the Humber river.
British Steel merged with Koninklijke Hoogovens from the Netherlands to form Corus in 1999. Eigth years later Corus was taken over by the Tata Steel group from India.
Tata Scunthorpe today consists of 4 blast furnaces (three active) a BOF shop containing three 300 ton vessels, a slab caster, a bloom caster and three rolling mills (rails, heavy plate and wire).
