Cockerill-Sambre was a group of Belgian steel manufacturers headquartered in Seraing, on the river Meuse, and in Charleroi, on the river Sambre. The Cockerill-Sambre group was formed in 1981 by the merger of two Belgian steel groups – SA Cockerill-Ougrée based at Seraing in the province of Liège, and Hainaut-Sambre based at Charleroi in the province of Hainaut – both being the result of post-World War II consolidations of the Belgian steel industry. The company inherited a steel industry with significant debts and production overcapacity based on blast furnace production rather than electric furnace recycling, with numerous factory sites in constrained city locations, and adversely affected by competition in the export market from new steel-producing countries (such as South Korea and Brasil). The need to streamline was complicated by regional dependence on employment in the steel industry. It was merged into Usinor in 1999, and after 2002 was part of the Arcelor group. As of 2010, the bulk of the group is part of the ArcelorMittal multinational steel group, where it is known as ArcelorMittal Liège. History Cockerill The Cockerill group's name came from the English-born Belgian industrialist John Cockerill, who founded John Cockerill & Cie. in 1817. During the first few decades of its existence, the firm rose to become a major integrated steel company, not only producing iron in blast furnaces, but also producing machines and other articles from the metal. After John Cockerill's death in 1840, the company became the state-owned Société anonyme John Cockerill, and an international-scale producer of iron and steel metal and products. The 8 day Strike of the 100,000 originated at Cockerill on May 10 1941, and eventually spread across the entirety of Liege province. The strike was both a way of seeking higher wages, and passively resisting the German occupation of Belgium during World War II. The strike was settled following an 8% wage increase, and future wartime strikes were often repressed by force. In 1955 the company merged with Ougrée-Marihaye and Ferblatil to form Cockerill-Ougrée. The new company had a total steel production of over 2 million tonnes, and it employed over 45,000 people in 1957. In 1961 Tolmatil became part of Cockerill-Ougrée, in 1962 it participated in the founding of Sidmar contributing 1bn Belgian francs of the companies 4.5bn capital. Further consolidation of companies occurred in 1966 when it merged with Les Forges de la Providence, a Belgian steelmaker with