Athus
Encyclopedia
Athus is a town in the Aubange
Aubange
Aubange is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg....

 municipality
Municipalities of Belgium
Belgium comprises 589 municipalities grouped into five provinces in each of two regions and into a third region, the Brussels-Capital Region, comprising 19 municipalities that do not belong to a province...

 of the province of Luxembourg, in south-eastern Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. It is located in the far south of the country, near the borders with France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

. Directly across the border with Luxembourg is the town of Rodange
Rodange
Rodange is a town in the commune of Pétange, in south-western Luxembourg. It lies next to the border with Belgium, across which is the town of Athus. The town is to the south-west of the town of Pétange and to the west of the smaller town of Lamadelaine...

, whilst the town of Pétange
Pétange
Pétange is a commune and town in south-western Luxembourg. It is part of the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette, which is part of the district of Luxembourg. Pétange lies on the borders with both Belgium and France....

 is 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) to the east.

Athus was an independent commune from 1877 until the reorganisation of the 1970s, when it was merged with the surrounding communes to create the enlarged municipality of Aubange on 1 January 1977.

Athus has a railway station, which connects it to other stations in the Belgian railway network
Rail transport in Belgium
Belgium has an extensive rail network. It is a member of the International Union of Railways . The UIC Country Code for Belgium is 88.-History:...

 and those of Luxembourg and France.

Steelworks

The steelworks in Athus was founded in 1872 as the company Société des Hauts Fourneaux d'Athus, a blast furnace was constructed and in 1880 a steelworks. In 1882 the company became Société des Hauts Fourneaux et Aciéries d'Athus, by 1914 there were four blast furnaces, and by 1928 five. In 1927 merger with the S.A. des Aciéries d'Angleur et des Charbonnages belges de Tilleu formed S.A. d´Angleur-Athus. In 1945 the company was taken over by the Société anonyme John Cockerill. Production continued until the steel works at Athus was merged with the Minière et Métallurgique de Rodange
Minière et Métallurgique de Rodange
The Minière et Métallurgique de Rodange was a Luxembourgian blast furnace steel producer and mining company originally established in 1872 as the Hauts-Fourneaux de Rodange...

(MMR) in 1973; restructuring as a result of the Steel crisis
Steel crisis
The steel crisis was a recession in the global steel market during the 1970s recession, following the end of the post-World War II economic boom and the 1973 oil crisis....

 of the 1973–75 recession
1973–75 recession
The 1973–75 recession in the United States or 1970s recession was a period of economic stagnation in much of the Western world during the 1970s, putting an end to the general post-World War II economic boom. It differed from many previous recessions as being a stagflation, where high unemployment...

 led to the complete closure of the plant in Athus in the late 1970s. The site of the plant is now a rail served container terminal
Container terminal
A container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example trains or trucks, in which case the terminal is described as a maritime...

.

External links

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