STEEL GRIPS online - Dillinger Hütte's 325th birthday

home

STEEL GRIPS online
ISSN 1866-8453

Last updated:
________________
May 10, 2012

Search STEEL GRIPS

from TOP

Dillinger Hütte's 325th birthday

Dec 21, 2009

Dillinger Hütte 1991. Photo: Harald Finster www.hfinster.de

2010 is a special year for Dillinger Hütte. On the one hand, the company is faced with major challenges in overcoming the current economic crisis. On the other hand, is also a year that marks an out-of-the-ordinary birthday: 325 years since the "birth" of the company. Out-of-the-ordinary, too, when one remembers that Dillinger Hütte has existed with a constant corporate identity at the same location for more than three centuries.

The iron and steelmaker took on the legal form of a joint stock corporation as early as 1809, and is today Germany's oldest existing company of this type.

In its long and varied history, Dillinger Hütte has had to weather many storms, be they economic crises or political conflicts, adverse market conditions or ever toughening competition.

Willingness to make long-term investments, rather than expectations of quick profits, a socially orientated corporate policy from the earliest days, a capability to adapt to changing conditions, the innovative spirit, and an emphasis on partnership with customers are the principles of an organically developed strategy characterized by sustainability and progress.

Since the mid-20th century, Dillinger Hütte has concentrated on its core product: heavy plate. The company's long-term strategy has brought it its present-day status of one of the world's leading producers of sophisticated heavy plate products that incorporate complex technological properties in extraordinary dimensions.

Employees whose families have been with the company for four generations or more are no rarity - proof of the high level of identification with "us Hütt", as Dillinger Hütte is popularly known in the region, in which it knows itself to be in every sense "at home". The workforce's identification with the company, and their qualifications, combined with broad-based know-how, modern facilities and processes and Dillinger Hütte's continuing policy of high strategic investment, mark out the road into the future: Unceasing Commitment to Progress is the anniversary motto for this anniversary year.

In view of the challenging economic conditions which confront Dillinger Hütte and many other steelmakers at present, the anniversary celebrations are to be kept on a responsible and rational scale. Concentrating entirely on essentials: a "Partners' Day" for customers and business associates on September 2, 2010, featuring addresses and a platform discussion focusing on the subject of steel. And, the program highlight, Dillinger Hütte's "Anniversary Day" on September 5, 2010, when the management invites all employees and their families to an open-day in the plant, featuring numerous attractions for young and old.

Historical overview

1685 - Foundation of Dillinger Hütte
Louis XIV of France grants the Marquis Charles Henri de Lenoncourt permission to construct ironworks, steel mills and smelteries in Dillingen. The first products of the new "Dillinger Hütte" (the name means "Dillingen ironworks") are pig iron, beaten iron sheet, nails, ovens, decorative chimneybreast plates, pots and pans.
1804 - The first rolled plate from Dillingen
1809 - The company becomes a joint stock corporation The company trades under the name of "Intéressés aux fonderies de cuivre et manufacture de fer blanc de Dilling". Today, Dillinger Hütte is Germany's oldest existing joint stock corporation.
1835 - Prussian market leader
Political and economic developments have led to Dillinger Hütte attaining the status of Prussia's largest producer of black- and tinplate. The “Dillinger Plate Standard” with 24 grades of strength for plates is accepted as the leading standard all over Germany.
1852 - "Statute of the Assistance and Pension Fund of the Dillinger Hüttenwerke"
The statute governs the benefits provided for employees and their families in case of illness and invalidity: free medical treatment, and a contribution to the costs of medicines. The "Assistance and Pension Fund" becomes the "Welfare Association of the Dillinger Hüttenwerke" in 1860.
1897 - Europe's first electrically powered sheet rolling mill
1948 - Setting-up of the "Société Lorraine de Laminage Continu" (SOLLAC)
Cost-efficient production of tinplate and sheet. Dillinger Hütte specializes in heavy plate.
1961 - The world's first continuous slab caster
The new machine can cast slabs of up to 1,500 mm x 200 mm.
1971 - A new rolling mill
The 4.3 m four-high stand permits production of heavy plate in exceptionally large formats.
1981 - Concentration of coke and iron production at Dillingen
The target of lower-cost production of "hot metal" (unrefined liquid iron) is achieved in 1981, with the formation of ROGESA Roheisengesellschaft Saar mbH, which supplies this most fundamental of steelmaking ingredients to its two co-owners, Dillinger Hütte and Saarstahl. In 1984, the newly founded Zentralkokerei Saar GmbH commences production of metallurgical coke to fuel the blast furnaces.
1985 - A rolling stand to beat all superlatives
Construction of the world's most powerful rolling stand, capable of rolling plates to a finished width of 5.2 m.
1989 - Foundation of DHS
The Saarland's two major steel companies, Dillinger Hütte and Saarstahl, are grouped together under the umbrella of the financial holding DHS – Dillinger Hütte Saarstahl AG, Dillingen. Saarstahl ceases, as a result of insolvency, to be part of DHS from 1994.
1991 - Europipe
Europipe GmbH, the world's leading producer of large-diameter linepipe, is founded as a 50% subsidiary of Dillinger Hütte.
1992 - The new Dillinger Hütte Group
French steelmaker GTS Industries S.A. becomes a 100% subsidiary of Dillinger Hütte, thus creating a European heavy plate group with an annual capacity of more than two million tonnes. In addition to GTS and Europipe, the Dillinger Hütte Group includes a large number of trading and flamecutting firms in various European countries and around the globe, employing some 8,500 persons.
1998 - Record-breaking continuous caster
The group's third vertical continuous caster is commissioned, setting a new world record with the casting of a 400 mm thick slab.
2005 - World's most modern plate-edge milling machine
The most modern heavy plate edge-milling machine in the world is installed in the heavy fabrication division.
2008 - New shareholding structure for DHS
From 2008 on, SHS-Struktur-Holding-Stahl GmbH & Co. KG aA (a 100% subsidiary of the Montan-Stiftung-Saar foundation) holds 26.17% of the capital stock of DHS, Saarstahl an unchanged 33.75 %, ArcelorMittal 30.08 % and DHS – Dillinger Hütte Saarstahl AG itself 10 % of the shares. The new ownership structure secures and strengthens the steelmaking sites in the Saar region.

In addition, make sure to read these articles: