Compagnie de l’Electrographite de la Meuse
THE ABANDONED GRAPHITE MANUFACTURER IN BELGIUM
This is the former ‘CEGRAM’ or ‘Compagnie de l’Electrographite de la Meuse‘ factory. It produced graphite electrodes. These electrodes are used in the metallurgy, almost exclusively for the iron and steel industry.
In 1972, the factory was established at this location along the river Meuse, close to Liege and its industry. Later, in 1994 ‘CEGRAM’ was taken over by ‘SGL Carbon’.
At the peak, the production site employed 300 people. After the 1986 crisis, the staff is reduced to 152 people. Due to increasingly fierce Chinese competition, the factory lost sales and suffered significant losses.
Also, in 1999 a very large part of the staff was dismissed. As a result, the plant’s operations ceased that same month. A large part of the building was demolished between 2000 and 2004. The production was never restarted, but from 2004 to 2007, reduced activities of sieving and grinding of graphite powder took place. Inevitably, the factory went into complete bankruptcy. In 2007 all production was stopped, and they placed the site into liquidation. While the factory was abandoned, the site was trashed after illegal raves and a fire. The 13 stories high silo is still standing, but in a bad shape.
‘SGL Carbon‘, or ‘Sigri Great Lakes Carbon’ is still an active company today. SGL is still owner of the abandoned site, but has no plans for new uses. These photos of ‘Compagnie de l’Electrographite de la Meuse’ were taken in 2017.
