Industeel Charleroi
It is said that Charleroi is the ugliest city in the world. It´s not true, Industeel is there.
FAFER (Fabrique de Fer de Charleroi) was founded in 1863 by entrepreneur Victor Gillieaux. Construction of the plant oriented on the production of sheet metal for bridge constructions was started a year later.
In 1931 the open-hearth steel shop with two furnaces (66 and 70 tons) and three plate mills were put into operation.
After World War II the Boël family took over the production.
In 1956 the steel plant was expanded with a new electric arc furnace (150 tonnes) and in 1977 with a second electric furnace (200 tonnes, still in operation today), which resulted into end of open-hearth era there.
However, the Boël family were gradually losing interest in the further steel production and thus they sold their works to the French group Usinor in 1997.
In 1998 Usinor was incorporated into the Creusot-Loire Industrie group and in 2003 the Industeel took over the operations finally.