- Joined
- Oct 19, 2015
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 151
- Points
- 33
some history first -
In 1809 the Fabrique de Fer d'Ougrée (English: Iron factory of Ogree) was founded, and in 1834 converted into an integrated works. In 1835 the Société des Charbonnages et Hauts-Fourneaux d'Ougrée (English: Coal and blast furnace company of Ougree) was founded
HFB was one of the primary metal producers in Belgium. by 1914 it operated 8 blast furnaces, and had a steel production capacity of 500,000 tonnes, producing semi and finished products such as bar, plate, beams and rails.
German occuptation during the First World War brought much damage to the plant at Ougrée, after the war only two blast furnaces were operational, and between 1919 and 1924 they rebuilt. Also between 1905 and 1928 the company operated an industrial rack railway at one of its factories in Ougrée.
Due to the economic downturn caused by the financial crisis of 2007–2010 blast furnace B temporarily stopped production from spring 2009 to April 2010.
In 2011 all liquid steel production in the ArcelorMittal steel Liege division was ended, resulting in protests, strikes, and the temporary encapsulation of several ArcellorMittal executives as protest against the closure. The company cited overcapacity, and uncompetitiveness as reasons for the closure; a report by Syndex commissioned by trade unions contradicted the claims of un-competitiveness, claiming ArcelorMittal's reports used biased accounting unions officials called for the liegeois steel industry to be taken into ownership outside ArcellorMittal to protect it.
And the explore -
My first urbex trip abroad, and I had an absolute brilliant time 
Thanks to @TheVampiricSquid and a non-member for letting me gatecrash their trip last minute (and to the other non-member who filled the last space in the car even more last minute), even if I did do all the driving :sleepy: Four of us and all of our bags piled into a Mini was interesting to say the least, I think I need a bigger car but it held up well for its first trip abroad!!
Thanks to @TheVampiricSquid and a non-member for letting me gatecrash their trip last minute (and to the other non-member who filled the last space in the car even more last minute), even if I did do all the driving :sleepy: Four of us and all of our bags piled into a Mini was interesting to say the least, I think I need a bigger car but it held up well for its first trip abroad!!Off we set on Friday night along the coast to meet the other two, and jump on the Ferry at dover (where I cleverly managed to kill the battery!! Successful trip already!!) and with almost no sleep, it's safe to say I was dying by the time we reached our first location in belgium. The roads are almost too smooth over there, a pothole or two wouldn't have gone a-miss in terms of keeping me awake!!
It was certainly an eventful trip all round, and we didn't get round to nearly as many places as originally planned, but on a freezing cold Sunday morning (and a rather nervous drive over from the hotel on icy roads...) we found ourselves here -
This place is absolutely huge, with some serious heavy machinery, and after probably the most awkward and knackering access I've done yet, we chilled in the control room for a bit before making our way all the way up to the very top where it may have been bloomin' cold, but so worth it for a hell of a view, one of the others even conquering their fear of heights after much umm-ing and ah-ing
On the way back down, our plan of exit was hurried along slightly accompanied by a change of route on spotting at least three police vans driving through the site... Hoping they'd only seen the other explorers on site, we made it out without even seeing them again h34r:
h34r:Infuriatingly, I managed to smash another lens here (doing bloody well at this urbex shiz I am!!) and my camera battery must not have charged properly overnight, as it died on me halfway up, but anyways, these are the shots I did get -
Thanks for looking
