Buderus Edelstahl Revisited

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Additional images now at Stahlseite.
The Wetzlar works were founded by “Röchlingsche Eisen und Stahlwerke” and Buderus in 1920.
A new melt shop was erected in 1939.
In 1965 Buderus took over and in 2005 the Austrian steel company Böhler Uddeholm acquired the mill.
Nowadays Buderus Edelstahl produces about 300000 tons of crude steel in an electric arc furnace. All steel is casted into ingots.
The further production line includes a blooming mill, a hot strip rolling mill, three open die forging presses and a closed die forge.

Fagersta Stainless

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The rolling mill in Fagersta goes back to one of the oldest steel companies in Sweden, Fagersta Bruk which had it’s origins in an iron hammer founded in 1611.
Fagersta Bruk became a limited company in 1873 and developed into one of the largest steel producers in central Sweden.
After merging with the Sandvik steel group in 1978 the iron production in blast furnaces was closed down. In 1982 the steel melt shop No. 1 ceased production too and one year later the former Fagersta group was dismantled and it’s remaining parts were sold to different companies.
After the the melt shop No.2 was closed down in 1985 only the wire mill kept on producing steel in Fagersta. It is specialized in stainless steel wire and owned by Outokumpu and Sandvik Materials.
Images here.

Spartan UK

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Images now on my website.
The heavy plate rolling mill in Gateshead, UK dates back to the former Redheugh Iron and Steel Co founded in 1918. The company rolled plates and sheet and provided welding, steel constructions and engineering. Redheugh Co employed more than 800 people in the 1960ies.
In 1970 the company was taken over by Spartan Steel&Alloys from Sheffield.
In 1975 a new 2,1 meter heavy plate rolling stand was installed.
Spartan Redheugh was absorbed by the Firth holding company in 1988.
In 2001 the Gruppo Malacalza of Italy bought the plant and sold it again in 2008 to the Metinvest group from the Ukraine.

Vargön Alloys

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No stainless steel without ferro chrom.
The last producer of such alloys in Sweden is Vargön Alloys in Vargön. The company was founded in 1874 as a pulp mill.
The first ferro-alloy smelter was installed in 1912 benefitting from the nearby hydroelectric power plants.
The pulp plant was sold in 1969.
In 1972 the world’s largest ferro alloys furnace (No.12) was installed. It has a daily capacity of up to 300 tons of ferro chrome.
From 1979 on the company was called Vargön Alloys AB.
Furnace No. 10 was refurbished for the production of ferrochrome in 1995 and has a capacitiy of 80 tons/d.
In 2008 the mill was bought by the Yildirim Group from Turkey.
Further images now at Stahlseite.

No. 5 Is Down

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WP-Steel in 2004 © Uwe Niggemeier


Despite the harsh winter weather the demolition of RG Steel’s former Mingo Junction site in Ohio continues.
Blast furnace No. 3 was already dismantled in 2004. The remaining furnace No.5 five came down recently too.
The mill was idled in 2009 and still waits for a new investor to restart the electric arc furnace and the rolling mill.

Further reading

The Abbey Works

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Though largely downsized the Welsh heavy industry is still worth a visit. The old Abbey works in Port Talbot provide the largest BOF vessels I have seen so far and the longest serving hot strip mill in Europe.
Images now on my website.

Three steel mills were built on the shoreline of Port Talbot south of Swansea, Wales over the last 110 years.
The Port Talbot Works (1902-1961)
The Margam Works (1918-1963)
The Abbey Works (1951-Present)
The Port Talbot works were founded in 1902 by the Gilbertson family. The mill produced iron from imported pig iron in three cupola furnaces and ran an open hearth shop with two furnaces.
The mill was shut down due to technical problems in 1903 and reopened in 1906 by the Port Talbot Steel Company Ltd. .
Two rolling mills and a new open hearth shop were built in between 1908 and 1914.
In 1917 the plant became fully integrated with the construction of the new Margam site half a mile southward. Two blast furnaces , a coking plant and a new open hearth shop were built until 1922. In 1930 the mill became part of the GKB (Guest, Keen, Baldwin) Steel company. Main product were plates and rails.
In 1941 a third blast furnaces became operable at the Margam site.
All three blast furnaces were completly rebuilt after WW II.
In the late 1940ies a plan to build a new huge integrated steel plant south of the Margam works the so called Abbey works was implemented.
Centerpiece of the new site was a wide hot strip mill built by United Engineering of Pittsburgh and partly financed by funds from the Marshall plan.
This rolling mill became operational in 1951. A new open hearth shop containing eight 200 ton furnaces started production in 1952. Two new blast furnaces were built on the site in 1956 and 1959 (No. 4 & No. 5).

The Port Talbot works were closed down and dismantled in 1961 and the old Margam site followed in 1963. Only blast furnace No. 3 survived as a standby furnace and was relighted in 1991 for one year and has been dismantled recently.
In 1967 the Steel Company Of Wales became part of the newly founded British Steel Corporation.
In 1969 a new BOF shop providing two 300 ton vessels was installed replacing the old open hearth furnaces.
The hot strip mill was widely overhauled in the late 1980ies (receiving a new roughing stand).
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. Blast furnace No. 4 was completly rebuilt in 2012.
Tata Steel Port Talbot today produces hot and cold rolled flat products and supplies slabs to the hot strip mill in Newport, Wales.

L’Usine De Thionville

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Though much of Lorraine’s steel industry has vanished the old Carlshütte in Thionville is still around. At least parts of it. Like the electric arc furnace in the old open hearth shop now owned by Akers from Sweden.
Further viewing at stahlseite.

The mill in Thionville (German: Diedenhofen) on the banks of the river Moselle was founded by Carl Röchling from Völklingen, Germany and named “Carlshütte” in 1898. Lorraine was part of Germany from 1871 to 1918. Two blast furnaces were built and two more plus a Bessemer steel mill were added in 1906.
After the first world war the mill became French and was now called “Société Lorraine Minière et Métallurgique”.
A coking plant came into operation in 1928.
The “Aciéries de Longwy” took over the plant in 1933.
A forge, an open hearth melt shop and a foundry were added.
1953 saw a new owner: “Société Lorraine – Escaut“.
In 1964 blast furnace number 1 was replaced by a new furnace the largest in Lorraine capable of producing 2000 tons of pig iron a day. Furnaces No. 2,3 and 4 were closed down in between 1966 and 1970 and were all dismantled by 1972.
USINOR a large steel company from northern France took over the Thionville mill in 1966.
A new UHP 70 ton electric arc furnace replaced the old open hearth furnaces in 1973.

Plans to built a OBM oxygen steel making shop on ground were halted in the 1970ies and in 1977 the blast furnace, the Bessemer shop and all rolling mills were closed down for good.
In 1980 a new continuous caster was installed to supply feedstock for USINOR’s
wire rolling mill in Longwy.
In 1983 the steel foundry was closed down.
In 1985 the mill was split up into USINOR Acierie de Thionville and USINOR Forge de Thionville.
USINOR and SACILOR, the two largest steel groups in France were fusioned in 1986, now government owned.
The steel mill became part of Unimetal (the long product subsidiary of USINOR) while the forge became part of the USINOR/Cockerill owned rolling mill manufacturer Forcast.
The continuous caster was closed in 1994 and the steel mill was now taken over by Forcast.
Forcast was sold to the Swedish roller manufacturer Akers in 2001.
Akers still runs the 70 ton electric arc furnace, ingot casting and the 4000 ton forging press to produce ingots and forged rolls mostly for the steel industry.