Orange Factory 🇧🇪

Built in 1961, this factory located next to to the site of the former HF6 Blast Furnace in Seraing allowed the treatment of waste linked to the steel operations, more concretely the treatment and recycling of the carbonated waste from refractory bricks of the ovens, also the evacuation of unwanted products in bags. Synthetic graphite (powder) was made there for foundries. The activity collapsed at the same time as that of the Liège steel industry. The Boma Tower, its real name, has been disused since 1990 and was demolished on September 16, 2021.

Despite a well -advanced state of degradation, I was very enthusiastic to discover this atypical factory. The structure of the buildings, the large windows as well as this overhead crane perched all at the top make this tower rather majestic, there are even tones of colors close to the « Orange and Teal », a fairly aesthetic combination which I found rather original for a factory. On the other hand here, the floors and ramps are covered with black powder, it is impossible not to get dirty, the pigeons have also done their ‘job’. Going down from the tower and moving to the other parts of the factory, there are large warehouses at the back that adjoined the old site of the HF6. There was a large blue truck there, there is only the bumper left. I will have a pleasant memory of this place, quite unique compared to other factories. My only disappointment is that its processing process remains rather vague and the disposition of machines did not allow to understand, in the end, how it all worked exactly.