EKO Stahl

Blast furnace under construction, 1951

In 1950 at the third party conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany the construction of a new steelworks was announced. A flat, agriculturally unimportant site near Fürstenberg was chosen, and on 18 August 1950 minister Fritz Selbmann symbolically felled a mountain pine tree, indicating the start of the work on construction of the new plant, named Eisenhuttenkombinat 'J.W. Stalin'.[1] Part of the rationale for the plant was to compensate for an embargo on steel from western Germany, where most of primary production had historically been located – raw materials (iron ore and coal) were to be supplied from Ukraine and Upper Silesia respectively. An additional rational was to provide work for a large number of German refugees (see also Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II).[2]

In 1953 the number of planned blast furnaces was scaled back from eight to six, and overall plans for the site were reduced to include only production of pig iron.[3] As part of a continued political process of De-Stalinization the plant was renamed Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost (EKO), at the same time the nearby town of Stalinstadt was renamed Eisenhüttenstadt.[4]

In 1968 a cold rolling mill became operational after three years of construction; plans for addition of steel production and hot rolling were initiated in the same period, but cancelled in 1967.[5] In 1969 the works was combined with several other steel producing works including those in VVB Stahl- und Walzwerke Berlin and VVB Eisenerz/Roheisen Saalfeld into Bandstahlkombinat Eisenhüttenstadt (BKE).[6]

In 1974 the cold rolling plant was improved to include the production of galvanised and other coated steels.[7] In 1984 a turnkey oxygen conversion (Linz-Donawitz process) based steelworks was installed by Austrian supplier Voest-Alpine.[8]

Blast furnaces in 1990

At German reunification in 1990 EKO became a corporation (EKO Stahl GmbH) – subsequent loss of business in East Germany and eastern Europe caused serious economic problems for the company, as did the high employment rates, and relatively low-value product range.[9] During the transition to a free market model employment was reduced from over 12,000 to under 3,000.[10] In 1994–95 Cockerill-Sambre acquired a 60% stake in the company, with the state (via the treuhandanstalt) retaining 40%. As part of the acquisition improvements to the plant were scheduled for completion 1998 including a new blast furnace, a hot rolling mill, and an upgrade to the cold rolling mill.[11] 900 million Deutschmarks in state aid for the reconstruction was approved by the European Union.[12] By 1997 the modernisation work and construction of blast furnace and hot rolling plant had been completed.[13] In 1998 Cockerill-Sambre acquired the remaining 40% of the company for 40 million Deutschmarks.[14] Cockerill-Sambre became part of Usinor in 1998.[15]

A second galvanizing line was added in 1999, serving the automotive industry.[16] The company became part of Arcelor in 2001 through the merger of Usinor, Aceralia and Arbed.[17] In 2006 the works became part of ArcelorMittal though the takeover of the parent company.[18]

Blast furnaces in 2013

A third galvanising line was approved in 2007, and construction started in 2008, due to the global recession (see Great Recession) work on the line was halted in 2009, and a blast furnace idled. Economic uncertainty continued to the early 2010s.[19] Lake Pohlitz supplies 8 million cubic meters of water to the process, and the waste water is treated before release to the Oder river.[20]

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• Niggemeier, Uwe, EKO STAHL, EISENHÜTTENSTADT