The Explore......
Some more Industrial Porn from a bit of a trip the later end of last year into Belgium and France with @Adam X and a couple of non members covering several Industrial Sites, Churches, a Chateau and Graffiti Warehouse
HFX is a massive abandoned steel works in France made up of three blast furnaces, railway and much much more. The scale of the place was so big that seven hours later, after dodging security and the fuzz we finally decided to leave.
A Bit of History, Taken From Darbians Blog.....
Iron has been produced in the Lorraine area for the past 300 years but production at this site started in 1906 with a blast furnace. As time went on a total of six blast furnaces were running here and a steelworks was added so the conversion of iron to steel could be processed on site.
An upgrade project during the 1970s removed three of the blast furnaces and capacity on the remaining three was increased.
At some point one furnace was idled which left two running. They were finally mothballed in 2011. The owners insisted this was temporary but it caused quite a stir with the employees. The restarting of the furnaces was delayed and eventually it was announced they would be shut down permanently. The government stepped in and fought the decision. They wanted the site to be sold. However they could not find anyone interested in the furnaces.
The main reason for the closure is the pressure to recycle, the reason the plant stayed open for so long was the German car industry. Steel for automobiles wasn't up to standard from recycled materials and only virgin iron was deemed acceptable. Now recycled materials can produce high grade ingots by a process with an electric arc furnace. Another contributing factor is the location and the fact that the output from the furnaces is small. Dunkerque has a much larger capacity and better transportation for raw materials, this makes it a much more financially viable option to be kept in production.
.....on with the pics......enjoy!?!
Thanks for lookin' in
.....I hope you enjoyed the report .....I Will Knot 
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