Cokerie d’Ougrée
THE ABANDONED COKES PLANT IN BELGIUM
The ‘Cokerie d’Ougrée’ coke factory was founded by the ‘Société Anonyme d’Ougrée-Marihaye’. This Liege-based steel company owned several mines and blast furnaces.
The Ougree cokes plant was equipped with four Krupp-Koppers batteries with 139 ovens. Producing 800 thousand tons of cokes a year. It supplied the nearby blast furnaces of Ougrée and Seraing. The cokes were transported by conveyor belts.
An explosion killed 3 and wounded 26 employees in 2002. In 2010, with the increase in production thanks to the restart of blast furnace HFB, the number of ovens is expanded to 185. But HFB was shut down only one year later.
The plant was closed in the summer of 2014, which meant the end of all heavy industry in the Liège area. No agreement could be found between the management of ArcelorMittal and the American Oxbow Mining, a potential buyer. They are demolishing the site now, in 2020 the site must be empty and cleaned. It was the last active coke plant in the Liège region and the second last in Belgium.
The photos of the old Cokerie d’Ougrée were taken in 2016. Also check this other three coke plants in Belgium: Zeebrugge, Marchienne and Anderlues.
