Origins (1882–1911) The discovery of
iron ore in Luxembourg in the 1850s and the introduction of
metallurgy in 1876 led to the development of an important national steel industry, especially in the south of the country, and provided Luxembourg with sustained economic growth during the second half of the 19th century. This
economic growth was greatly boosted during the two decades preceding World War I when large integrated steelworks, able to convert cast iron into steel and rolled steel, were constructed. Steel production surged from 145 313 tonnes in 1900 to 1,115,004 tonnes in 1913, Similarly, German industrialists invested funds in the development of Luxembourg steel companies. was named
ARBED S.A., the acronym for
Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange, Société Anonyme. mining and hot steel production were shut down and in 1994 MMRA merged with
ARBED-Esch Schifflange (AES) to form
Aciéries Rodange Esch-Schifflange (ARES) a subsidiary of ProfilARBED From 1982 to 1983, the Luxembourg steel industry was restructured and the Luxembourg government invested heavily in ARBED, finally owning 42.9% of the company's shares. Furthermore, during the following two decades, ARBED developed its international activities as well as its production of
long steel products (steel bars and rods produced for a variety of uses such as building and bridge construction) and
electric arc furnace steel while reducing its domestic steel-producing operations. Certain key events in the economic expansion of ARBED occurred in the 1990s. In 1990, ARBED jointly acquired Yates, a U.S. company specialising in the production of
copper foil, with
Japanese group Furukawa Electric. The following year, the Luxembourg company founded TrefilARBED Arkansas (USA), a steelcord plant in
Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In 1992, it founded long steel products company
Stahlwerk Thüringen in Germany. In 1993, ARBED founded ProfilARBED, a subsidiary company specialized in the production of long steel products and ARBED Americas, a subsidiary of TradeARBED, in 1994, to manage all United States commercial activities. ARBED also expanded by taking over other companies; in 1995, it obtained the majority of shares of German
Klöckner Stahl, now
Stahlwerke Bremen, and, in 1997, it developed a strategic partnership with Spanish steel company
Aceralia (formerly
CSI). However, during this period of geographic expansion and division of sectors, the remaining Luxembourg blast furnaces gradually stopped operating, the last one, in
Belval, definitely halting its operations in 1997.
Arcelor and ArcelorMittal (2002 onwards) Despite the end of its Luxembourg steel production, ARBED remained a global economic actor. Its diversification and development of its international scope enabled ARBED to remain competitive. In 2002, ARBED and two other European steel-producing and manufacturing companies, Spanish strategic partner
Aceralia and French
Usinor, merged into
Arcelor. In 2006
Mittal Steel launched a
takeover for Arcelor that led to the creation of
ArcelorMittal. == See also ==