This steel factory was founded in 1853. When the owner stood on the verge of bankruptcy due to the high financial demands for the construction of a railway line, he was saved with the financial assistance of an accountant within his company. After the founder's death in 1880, he bequeathed the company to that accountant, who expanded the business under his name. By 1897, the company employed 1,200 workers.

By 1913, the company possessed two blast furnaces, two batteries of 41 coke ovens; two steel mills, rolling mills, forges, workshops, etc. During the First World War, the factory was dismantled and demolished, but from 1919 onwards it was rebuilt with new blast furnaces and coke ovens with a production capacity of 200,000 tonnes of iron per year. Further expansions to the factory would take place during the interwar period.