Hainaut-Sambre
| Industry | Steel |
|---|---|
| Successor | Cockerill-Sambre |
| Founded | 1955 |
Hainaut-Sambre was a Belgian group of steel companies based in the Charleroi region, it was founded in 1955 by the merger of Usine Métallurgiques du Hainaut (based in Couillet, Charleroi), and the metal making division of Sambre et Moselle (based in Montignies-sur-Sambre, Charleroi).
The company absorbed another Charleroi based steel group Thy-Marcinelle et Providence in 1980 before being merged with the Liege based steel group Cockerill in 1981 to form Cockerill-Sambre.
A predecessor company SA Marchinelle & Couillet built locomotives at the Usines Métallurgiques du Hainaut which were used on industrial railways, and exported around the world. The locomotive builder was commonly known as Couillet.
It has been speculated that the beginnings of industrialised iron working around Charleroi may date at least to 1000AD, with water powered forge, and furnace fed by charcoal. The first official record of an iron industry dates to ~1600 By the 19th century the metallurgical inventions of the industrial revolution had reached Belgium; in the Charleroi area Paul-François Huart-Chapel would be instrumental in the development of the steel industry as his contemporary, the naturalised Belgian John Cockerill was in the nearby Liege area. In the 1820s he introduced puddling furnaces then coke fired blast furnaces.
In 1828 the maison de commerce "Fontaine-Spitaels" bought land for the construction of iron works and in 1830 merged with Usines des Hauchies of Paul Huart-Chapel to form Fontaine-Spitaels et Cie. The company had, in addition to blast and reverbatory furnaces and coke ovens, licenses for the extraction of coal and iron ore. In 1835 the company became the Société Anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux, Usines et Charbonnages de Marcinelle et Couillet with a capital of 4.5 million francs.
Further expansion and development took place, with a mill for iron bar installed, then railways in the 1840s aiding the transportation of ore, the Siemens-Martin process introduced in 1888, in 1892 a Gilchrist-Thomas converter, and in 1894 a mill for rolling metal.
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