Modern siderurgy in Bizkaia

In the chapter dedicated to mining we saw how the abolition of the foral regime after the victory of liberalism in the Carlist Wars, culminating in 1876, meant the suppression of the limitations on iron exports and also the opening of the exploitation of the mines by private companies.

At a time of great international demand, especially from Great Britain, the technological innovations arising from the Industrial Revolution boosted, due to its abundance and quality, the demand for iron from Biscay. This phenomenon had an immediate effect on the iron and steel production methods that had been used in our territory for centuries. In just a few decades, the traditional model of ore reduction in forges would be surpassed by a new way of transformation, already fully industrial, modern and competitive at world level. The low furnace gave way to the blast furnace.

But what is a blast furnace?

Traditional forges and, even before that, the haizeolas, had furnaces in which the iron ore was subjected to a reduction process that freed it from its impurities (slag), but without actually melting it. In modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, the method is indirect, resulting in a material, not yet definitive, called pig iron. This pig iron is composed of 91-94% iron, mixed with small percentages of carbon, manganese, sulfur, phosphorus and silicon. As it is not yet a suitable product for use, it must be transferred to converters, which transform it into steel.

Blast furnaces are constructions that can reach up to 30 meters in height. They are built with refractory material and are shaped like a bucket, with a mouth at the top through which the ore is introduced. Very high temperatures are generated inside, higher near the base, which produces a differential effect, from top to bottom, in different phases. In the upper part, the ore is reduced, in the middle zone the carbon is dissolved, and a melting process is initiated that allows the slag to bleed. In the lower part, at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees, the actual smelting takes place, leaving pig iron as the final result.

The blast furnace boom

The first blast furnace to operate at full capacity in Bizkaia was the Santa Ana de Bolueta factory, which was put into operation in 1846. In the following years, other factories would emerge: Nuestra Se?ora del Carmen (1854), origin of the future Altos Hornos de Bilbao; Vizcaya (1882), Iberia (1890) or Basconia (1892). From the merger of the companies Recalde, Samnta águeda and Castrejana, the Sociedad Echevarría for special steels was born in 1901. In general terms, we can say that the great take-off of the Biscayan steel sector took place between 1876, with the end of the last Carlist War, and 1902, the year of the foundation of Altos Hornos de Bizkaia.

The great colossus: Altos Hornos de Vizcaya (AHV)

In 1854, the company Ybarra Hermanos y Cía built the Nuestra Se?ora del Carmen factory in Barakaldo. Three years later, this same company would install the first Bessemer converter at its plant in Guriezo (Cantabria). In 1882 the company was renamed Altos Hornos de Bilbao and, from its merger with La Vizcaya, created in 1882, and La Iberia, founded in 1890, Altos Hornos de Vizcaya was created in 1902.

AHV was, since its foundation and until its definitive closure in 1996, the true flagship of the Basque industry, a huge engine that consumed, on the one hand, the iron ore from our mines, and on the other hand, nourished the metallurgical and naval sectors with the steel it produced.

Its location on the left bank of the Nervión has contributed greatly to shape towns such as Barakaldo or Sestao and the estuary itself, employing thousands of people for generations. Some of these people came from the Basque Country, although the majority were migrants from other parts of the state, who came to this land in search of opportunities. From their mixture would emerge a new form of identity, very rich, mixed and, above all, proud of the important role they would play in the development of the economy of Bizkaia.

The end of an era

Although subject to logical ups and downs, usually as a consequence of international circumstances, the Biscayan steel sector maintained its strength during a good part of the 20th century. From 1974 onwards, however, a series of factors converged to trigger a crisis that was to prove fatal. Rising prices of raw materials and energy, the end of the limitations imposed by the Franco regime on wages, together with a sharp contraction in demand, plunged the sector into a desperate situation. Neither public aid nor the various reconversion plans were able to halt the decline.

The Iron March was a historic protest demonstration held in 1992 by steel workers in the Basque Country and Asturias. Thousands of people walked the 400 kilometers from Sestao to Madrid. This march became a symbol of the workers' struggle and the resistance of a community facing deindustrialization and an uncertain future.

On July 23, 1995, Blast Furnace 2 of Altos Hornos de Vizcaya in Sestao was shut down for good, marking the end of more than a century of steel production in the region. This closure symbolized the culmination of deindustrialization in the Basque Country. The shutdown of the furnace not only meant the loss of thousands of jobs, but also the end of an era that had defined the Biscayan and Basque identity and economy for generations.