Usinor
Union Sidérurgique du Nord de la France ( USINOR ) was a French steel group based in Paris , which, together with the Spanish Aceralia SS and the Luxembourg Arbed SA, formed the European steel group Arcelor from 2002 , which was taken over by the competitor Mittal Steel Company in 2006 .
Usinor in 1948 as a state enterprise by the merger of huts -, steel and rolling mills of the North and East and the blast furnaces , foundries and steel mills of Denain-Anzin formed. Usinor had production sites in Calais , Roubaix , Nivelles and Charleville-Mézières , which were located in the vicinity of the northern French-Belgian coal district . Usinor produced pig iron and crude steel, but also flat steel .
In the same year, the Société Lorraine de Laminage Continu SA ( SOLLAC ), based in Paris, was founded as a joint venture by the de Wendel family , the steel industry created in the 18th century, together with eight other companies from Lorraine , which provided the flat steel and sheet metal industry in Lorraine with a Capacity of 1 million tons per year. The raw material for the French automotive and electrical industries was produced here. Sollac had production sites in Dunkirk , Rombas , Hagondange , Gueugnon and Longwy in Lorraine, but also in the Bouches-du-Rhône department . The Dillinger Hütte in Germany also belonged to Sollac .
1950 was also in Metz the Union Sidérurgique Lorraine SA ( SIDELOR founded), headquartered in Paris, another steel company owned by the family de Wendel, the production sites in Rombas, the blast furnaces and foundries in Pont-a-Mousson , Homécourt and Micheville in Lorraine decreed where Minette iron ore deposits were mined. The Rombacher Hüttenwerke was originally founded by the Carl Spaeter Group from Koblenz . During the Second World War they were taken over by Otto-Ernst Flick in trusteeship . Sidelor was absorbed by the de Wendel family in 1968.
In 1964 the other large French steel group SACILOR was founded, which took over the steel plants in Lorraine. In the early 1970s, Usinor accounted for a third of French steel production.
In 1971, Usinor advertised in a prospectus for the capital increase that its sales had increased by around 80% since 1968 and that cash flow had increased sixfold. Assuming that the next five years would take the same course as in 1970, the company saw able to be 4 billion francs strong investment program to fully fund itself. During the steel crisis of the 1970s, a large number of steel jobs were cut in Lorraine and the neighboring Belgian-Luxembourg area. The long, tenacious but ultimately unsuccessful struggle of the steel workers from Longwy aroused international attention and solidarity in the mid-1970s.
After François Mitterrand's election victory , the new government nationalized Usinor and Sacilor, which were merged in 1986 to form Usinor-Sacilor. Four years later, the third French company in the industry, Sollac, was taken over by Usinor. In the following year, Ugine was also integrated by Sacilor. In 1994 the stainless steel manufacturers were restructured in the Aster Holding .
In Germany, Usinor acquired a 25% stake in Drahtwerk Ludwig in Lampertheim in 1980 , which it increased to 100% in 1990. In 1993, Usinor-Sacilor founded a subsidiary for structural steel in Neuves-Maisons , the Société des Aciers d'Armature pour le Béton (SAM), which took wire works Ludwig from its electric steelworks in Neuves-Maisons and Montereau on the waterway across the Moselle and the Rhine Supplied raw material. In 2000 Usinor sold SAM together with its German subsidiary to the Italian Riva Group .
In 1995 the conservative French government privatized Usinor Sacilor SA. In 1997 the company renamed itself again and is now called Usinor SA In France, Usinor employed around 50,100 people in 1997 and achieved a turnover of 72,000 million francs. In 1998 the Belgian competitor Cockerill-Sambre SA was taken over, which resulted in a reorganization of the group in 1999 until it was integrated into the multinational ArcelorMittal in 2002 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charles Levinson: Economic crisis and multinational corporations, Hamburg, 1974, ISBN 3 499 16880 4 , p. 40
- ^ Charles Levinson: Economic crisis and multinational corporations, Hamburg, 1974, ISBN 3 499 16880 4 , pp. 40f