This 1963 steel rolling mill in Chertal is part of the success story of the Liège steel industry. In this steelworks, the molten pig iron, transported by thermo-trucks from the blast furnaces of Seraing and Ougrée, was converted into steel thanks to oxygen injection. Continuous casting solidified the liquid steel into large blocks, the slabs, preformed for the next step. After heating, the slabs were thinned in the rolling mill, consisting of a series of cages where cylinders flattened the material. In this way, the slab was formed into a large coil of thick sheet metal. This marked the end of the "hot phase" of the steelmaking process.

Liège's steel industry is older than Belgium itself. Its history dates back to 1817, when Englishman John Cockerill established his first steel mill in Seraing to produce steel for his looms. In the following years, the steel industry expanded and continued to grow. However, the crisis of the early 1980s hit it hard.

From then on, the Liège industries were merged with those of Charleroi to form "Cockerill Sambre." Mergers and capital injections failed to prevent the two blast furnaces used for hot-line production from being shut down in 2005. In 2006, an Indian steel giant acquired them, creating ArcelorMittal. The blast furnaces were put back into operation, only to be closed again barely two years later due to low demand for steel.

Shortly afterwards, the Heavy Metal steel rolling mill reopened, but due to ongoing social conflicts, operations were permanently halted in 2011. Negotiations on a social plan continued for some time, but operations were never resumed.

Shortly after my visit copper thieves also found their way to this site and stole all the copper and other valuable metals, just as they had done before from the two blast furnaces... Fortunately I got to see this magnificent piece of industrial heritage before it was vandalized. Since early March 2022 dismantling and demolishing works started.