World economic crisis and restructuring (1975–2002)
The 1973 oil crisis and its global repercussions had a dramatic impact on Luxembourg and on ARBED in particular, as it coincided with worldwide global steel overproduction.[2] Despite ARBED's international sales network's restructuring in 1976 (Columeta was renamed TradeARBED) and the establishment of TrefilARBED Korea in 1978,[4] by 1983, steel production had slumped back to 1955 levels (3.2 million tonnes, compared with 6.45 million tonnes in 1974).[2] By 1985, the steel industry employed only half of its 1974-level work force.[2]
In 1978 ARBED became a 25% shareholder in Métallurgique et Minière de Rodange-Athus (MMRA),[6] mining and hot steel production were shut down and in 1994 MMRA merged with ARBED-Esch Schifflange (AES) to form Aciéries Rodange Esch-Schifflange (ARES) a subsidiary of ProfilARBED[7]
From 1982 to 1983, the Luxembourg steel industry was restructured and the Luxembourg government invested heavily in ARBED, finally owning 42.9% of the company's shares.[2] Furthermore, during the following two decades, ARBED developed its international activities as well as its production of long steel products (steel bars and rods produced for a variety of uses such as building and bridge construction) and electric arc furnace steel[5] while reducing its domestic steel-producing operations.
Certain key events in the economic expansion of ARBED occurred in the 1990s. In 1990, ARBED jointly acquired Yates, a U.S. company specialising in the production of copper foil, with Japanese group Furukawa Electric.[4] The following year, the Luxembourg company founded TrefilARBED Arkansas (USA), a steelcord plant in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In 1992, it founded long steel products company Stahlwerk Thüringen in Germany. In 1993, ARBED founded ProfilARBED, a subsidiary company specialized in the production of long steel products and ARBED Americas, a subsidiary of TradeARBED, in 1994, to manage all United States commercial activities.[4] ARBED also expanded by taking over other companies; in 1995, it obtained the majority of shares of German Klöckner Stahl, now Stahlwerke Bremen, and, in 1997, it developed a strategic partnership with Spanish steel company Aceralia (formerly CSI).[5] However, during this period of geographic expansion and division of sectors, the remaining Luxembourg blast furnaces gradually stopped operating, the last one, in Belval, definitely halting its operations in 1997.[2]
