Laminoirs et Usines du Ruau
THE ABANDONED FACTORY IN BELGIUM
‘Laminoirs et Usines du Ruau’ is an abandoned rolling mill in Charleroi. The mill manufactured metal joints for building constructions. Eventually, the site was abandoned in 2012.
The factory was founded during the year 1863 by Industrialist Émile Constant-Bonehill. But in 1879, the Constant-Bonehill company was taken over by the ‘Laminoirs du Ruau’.
After a reorganization in 1905 the factory was named ‘Laminoirs et Boulonnerie du Ruau’. In that time, it also made bolts for industrial use. The factory was dismantled during the First World War and bombed in 1944. Eventually, it was rebuilt in 1945 and enlarged in 1949. In 1958 the factory stopped the production of bolts and was renamed ‘Laminoirs et Usines du Ruau’.
Crisis
Since 2008, the plant was producing at half power. In 2011, only a quarter of the old volumes came out of the workshops. The factory closed its doors in 2012 when the factory still employed 110 people. During its thirty years, the number of factory workers has been divided by three. The economic uncertainties were to blame for the closure of the plant. I visited the abandoned buildings in 2015 and 2016.
