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History of Koninklijke Hoogovens
September 20th 1918

The 1970's

Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens was
founded in The Hague to enable Dutch industry to
become less dependent on imports. Thegeographical location of the Netherlands was
ideal for the establishment of an iron and steel
company, with its excellent access to the sea for
the supply of raw materials and the export offinished products. The business was established
at IJmuiden, a town on the North Sea coast with
good access inland via the North Sea Canal.

In 1970, Hoogovens took a holding in Sidal, an
aluminiumrolling and extrusion company. On the
7 July 1972 Hoogovens and Hoesch of Germany
merged to form Estel.

1920 - 1941
The initial capital was raised by companies,
private investors, the DutchState and the city of
Amsterdam. Construction began in 1920, and in
1924 the first blast furnace was commissioned
and iron production began. By the mid 1930's,
Hoogovens had become the largestexporter of
pig iron in the world. In 1936, they began
producing cast-iron pipes. Steel production began
in 1939, using open-hearth furnaces. In 1941,
Hoogovens acquired Van Leer's Walsbedrijven, arolling mill that was renamed Walserij Oost (East
Rolling Mill).
The 1960's
In the mid-sixties Hoogovens decided to diversify,
particularly into aluminium and mining. In 1966,
the Aldel primaryaluminium smelter was
commissioned, after the acquisition a year earlier
of Vaassen Aluminium.

The 1980's
After several years of 'manifest' crisis in the
European steel industry, the co-operativearrangement between Hoogovens and Hoesch
was dissolved in 1982. The European activities of
Kaiser Aluminium were acquired in 1987, making
Hoogovens one of the four largest producers of
rolled andextruded aluminium in Europe.
The 1990's
In 1990, the Hoogovens group had five divisions;
Steel, Aluminium, Technical Services,
Subcontracting, and the newly formed Steel
Processing and Trading....