On 3 June 2014, ArcelorMittal Liège management announced failed negotiations with Oxbow Mining over the Ougrée cokery (Seraing) takeover, which is set to close by the end of the month, impacting its remaining workforce of 240.
This closure signalled a troubling development for the Liege steel industry, already reeling from the shutdown of blast furnace 6 in 2005, a definitive closure in 2008, the end of the hot phase in 2011, and the closure of five ‘finishing’ lines in 2013.
Safety measures for the Ougrée cokery’s 97 ovens, installed back in 1982 and 1983, will span a course of 72 hours, followed by a second phase that could last up to four weeks. The primary objective is to reduce the interior temperature from 1,200 to 0°C.
Historically, these ovens have been utilised to transform coal into coke through pyrolysis. A process in which 15 tonnes of coal could yield 10 tonnes of coke, used in Liege’s blast furnaces.
During this process, gases were released and then treated and purified for heating the ovens by 40%, the remaining 60% was used at the Seraing Steam Plant.
The cokery’s dismantling operations began in 2018, with a projected timeline of 18 months.
Currently, the site has entered its third phase of dismantling, targeting the core ovens, the water tower, the coal tower and a hundred-meter high chimney, according to RTC Télé Liège.
This final phase is expected to conclude in 2025. After which, a new extensive project will be launched: the cleanup of some of Wallonia’s most polluted soil.
