We've encountered them several times before: the Wendel family. The cradle of their steel empire, which stretched across Alsace and into Germany's Ruhr region, is located here.

The furnace division is located on a site whose steel production dates back to the 17th century. This is where the Wendel family history began. In 1715, Martin Wendel became the owner. He completed the Rodolphe forge and the Magdeleine blast furnace, which he had already purchased in 1704.

After numerous complications resulting from the French Revolution and a number of family disputes, construction of the steel mill began in 1879. By 1907, the company employed nearly 5,000 workers. Due to the ever-increasing production, they soon reached the 400,000-ton mark. Overused tools suffered numerous breakages, and the construction of a new steel mill, capable of producing 1,000,000 tons, seemed inevitable. The Martin-Siemens process, which is more expensive but produces high-quality steel, was more suitable for the production of flat products.

To supply the foundry, a first furnace was built in 1900, which began operating on December 15, 1902. A second was built in 1902, a third in 1906, and a fourth in 1913.

The first coke plant, intended to supply these blast furnaces, was commissioned between 1952 and 1954, but reached the end of its service life in the mid-1970s. A new coke plant was built in 1975 and commissioned in 1978 as an extension to the battery furnaces in use at the time. The blast furnaces themselves, which date from the early 20th century, were also being expanded. In particular, blast furnaces P3 through P6, whose design was inspired by American standards, were doubled in volume.

Around 1956, the P4 even became the largest and most productive in Europe. It was also during this time that Wendel et Cie launched construction of a seventh blast furnace, the P7, in line with the first six. However, only the copper battery, completed in 1962, was built, and construction of the furnace itself was halted. In 1964, these three cowpers were then connected to the P6, replacing the original one.