Denain-Anzin

Denain-Anzin (Société des hauts-fourneaux, forges et aciéries de Denain et d'Anzin) was a steel manufacturer in Denain and Anzin in the Nord department of France. The company was created through the merger of two smaller forges to produce rails for the Nord railway company. After World War II it was merged with other companies in 1948 to form Usinor. The Société Serret, Lelièvre et Cie was constituted in 1834 to build and run the Forges de Denain. The partners were Georges Serret, Isidore Charpentier-Odolant and Charles Lelièvre. Pierre François Dumont also participated. Serret and Dumont were also partners in the Forges de Raismes (Renaux, Dumant et Cie). The factory in Denain was located beside the Escaut river, which had been canalized between Valenciennes and Cambrai since 1775. The docks on the river were owned by the Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin, a coal mining operation, apart from one quay used by the steel factory. The Mines d'Anzin operated three coal mines below the factory. The first coke-fired blast furnaces of the Forges de Denain began operations in 1836. In 1834 Benoît Vasseur, using external capital, asked for permission to build an iron factory at Anzin similar to that at Denain. Due to lack of money, Vasseur was unable to build a blast furnace and built only a forge and puddling furnaces. In 1842 he sold the business, the Forges et Laminoirs d'Anzin, to the Société de Commerce de Bruxelles, a subsidiary of the Société Générale de Belgique. This was a major bank associated with the Rothschilds that worked with Léon Talabot in the Nord. Both the Denain and Anzin companies had little difficulty training their workers, since there was a long history of mining and industry in the region. Construction of the Chemins de Fer du Nord drove the integration of small forges into rolling mills to supply rails. The Compagnie du chemin de fer du Nord was unable to import Belgian rails in 1846. To obtain a better supply, in 1849 the Talabots took control of the Denain and Anzin forges and merged them.