SM Steel Works (ESB) 🇧🇪

Nicknamed SM Steel Works or Super Metallica, from its real name "ESB" (Engineering Steel Belgium), this steelworks was founded in 1972 by Cockerill. It was taken over by other companies in the 90s and 2000s, before going bankrupt in 2016. During my late visit, almost the entire building (huge, by the way) was empty. Only an enormous metallurgical ladle, as if broken by an unknown giant's force, sits enthroned in the vast hangar under the silent gaze of the overhead cranes, so high.

However, the place was not so quiet: strange workers / metal thieves were bent on dismantling parts without concealing their noise. A car stopped at the same time in front of the entrance. Too much movement around here, we decided to leave after only a few minutes of visiting without trying to understand what exactly was going on. Interesting discovery, and yet another vestige of the Cockerill empire destined for certain demolition. The exploration of this place was a bit accidental because we did not really know what to expect, plus we don’t find much documentation about it. The exxplore.fr site provides some very interesting additional information that I invite you to discover.