Iron and steel making has a long tradition in Luxembourg. First activities started in the early 1900s.
The production of steel, from iron ore, was most important in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960 around 4 Mio. tonnes were produced, and the production peaked in 1974 with 6.5 Mio. tonnes. In 1997 the last blast furnace in Belval was closed, and since that year all new steel making is based on electric arc furnaces which use recycled steel as raw material.
This gallery shows historic photos taken in 1960 on the site of Belval, near the city of Esch-sur-Alzette. At that time still, a quite old process called 'oxygen bottom blowing' was used for transforming liquid hot metal into steel, in a crucible called 'Bessemer converter'. Beforehand, hot metal was produced by melting large quantities of iron ore in the blast furnaces. With the help of oxygen, entering a high pressure through the bottom of the converter into the liquid metal, impurities like carbon, phosphorous, sulfur, manganese, were removed. These impurities oxidize (burn) at different temperatures, and the process can be monitored by the changing colours and intensities of the flames at the mouth of the converter. When the liquid steel was ready, in terms of temperature (around 1600°C) and chemical composition, it was cast into ingots (or blocs), reheated if necessary, and sent to the rolling mills for the production of finished products.