History DUFERCO Trebos NV

The steel producer Usine Gustave Boel in La Louviere was founded in 1850. At that time UGB was producing slabs and wire rod with the wire rod sold to independent wire drawing companies both inside and outside Belgium. The treatment and sales of wire products was left to third parties. Worried about the future of the wire rod production, and so as to not get detached from its market, UGB bought the wire drawing company Trefac in Rijmenam.

Separately, on the 24th of April 1951, the independent company TREBOS (Tréfilerie de Hambos) was established. 1951 was also the start of the European Coal and Steel community. The European wire market grew fast and lead to additional export opportunities. In the following years construction steel became the biggest area of distribution for Trebos.

Conscious of the importance of wire drawing for the La Louviere steel plant, UGB also acquired Trebos in 1957. In the following decades the production range gradually moved from ribbed wire and mesh to bright wire for chromium plating and nickel coating. Investments were made in annealing furnaces for production of cold heading wire. High carbon was later added to the product range.

In 1997 Koninklijke Hoogovens became co-owner, acquiring 50% of the UGB Group. 2 Years later, in 1999 Hoogovens–UGB was sold to the Swiss-Italian group DUFERCO. A few years later Duferco established a joint venture with the Russian steelmaker NLMK. Throughout that period of time Trebos remained part of an integrated production cycle with the La Louviere mill. After the closure of the steel plant in 2013, Trebos continues its activity as wire processer (drawing, annealing, pickling) within the group Duferco under the name Duferco Trebos n.v.