Driving around in the Lorraine district of France near Luxembourg poses a lesson in modern history and gives somewhat an insight in the rationale behind the foundation of the EU. The nucleus of the European Coal and Steel Community ECSC and the Paris treaty of 1952 is really here in the Wallonia-Luxembourg-Saar-Ruhr-Alsace-Lorraine encirclement.

Historically, with the rapid development of the modern steel making in the late 1800s, the 1870-71 war between France and Germany could be seen as a war over the control of the "ingredients of modern warfare". As the French were defeated, the Germans gained control over the Lorraine and adjacent Alsace area.

The First World War showed even more clearly than the 1870 Franco-German war that the industrial output of steel and coal was pivotal for the war effort. The punishment of the Germans as a part of the 1919 ceasefire agreement was the return of the Elsass-Lothringen area to the French. Elsass became Alsace again and Lothringen became Lorraine. The French now gained access to state-of-the-art steelmaking technology built by the Germans.

The three main elements ore, coal/coke and steel have all traditionally been tightly linked and the comparative benefit of having all close together made this region highly competitive despite low-yielding ores. Low-yielding ores in turn required more coke and the local coking coal that was available en masse made it all work.

However, the rapid development in steelmaking in the 1950s led to the modern oxygen processes together with the massive introduction of high-yielding African, South American and Australian ores fundamentally changed the picture. Further, giant steelworks were built at the seafront and the tremendous increase in size of carrier ships during the 1960s completely eradicated the location advantage of the traditional mills. The high yielding ores drastically reduced the coke- and energy requirement.

The period from 1960 to 1990 more or less completely eradicated the Western European coal/coke industry and the low-yielding ore mines were all closed. Hundred of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and the picture is today entirely different compared with fifty years ago.

As a fascinating and ultimate sign of modern globalization, Europe's steel giants ARCELOR and Corus have now being acquired by the Indian newcomers Mittal and Tata respectively. Most likely, new M&As in the iron- and steel industy will be seen in the years to come.

The only remains of the Uckange blast furnace that was closed in 1991 is the U4 "Uckange Haute Forneau 4" which stands as a rusty skeleton in the dull area south of Thionville. In neighboring town Grandange, the large ARCELOR sign on the giant and still operational steel works have been replaced by a Mittal sign - the world is flat...
.