issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article does not cite any sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message this article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the wikipedia editor s personal feelings about a topic rather than the opinions of experts . please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style . september 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message dillinger h tte ag der dillinger h ttenwerke type limited company aktiengesellschaft industry steel industry founded 1809 headquarters dillingen germany key people karlheinz blessing chief executive officer michael h. m ller chairman of the supervisory board revenue 2 161 mrd . eur 2009 total assets 2 768 mrd . eur 2009 balance sheet total number of employees 5 296 december 31 2009 website www.dillinger.de dillinger h tte is a steel producer in dillingen in the german federal state of saarland and has a history stretching back more than three hundred years . the plant was originally founded in 1685 and was germany s first aktiengesellschaft or joint stock company 1809 . the first continuous caster for slabs in the world was commissioned in dillingen in 1962 . a further machine permitting casting of slabs of up to 400 mm in thickness the thickest produced anywhere in the world at that time was added along with other new facilities in 1998 . in 2010 dillinger h tte successfully produced the first 450 mm thick slab another world record . the principal equipment in the rolling mill now takes the form of two four high stands of which one is currently the largest in the world with an effective rolling width of 5.5 m and a rolling pressure of 110 mn . contents 1 facilities 2 uses 3 history 4 external links facilities edit the dillinger h tte group also includes a further rolling mill operated by gts industries in dunkirk france . the group s parent company is dhs holding which owns 95.28 % of the shares in the operating company ag der dillinger h tte . another 4.72 % are held in free float . the company s products are marketed under the dillinger h tte gts trade name . the shares in dhs holding are owned 33.4 % by the international arcelor mittal steel group with 33.75 % held by saarstahl ag and 15.00 % by struktur holding stahl . reciprocal part ownership exists with saarstahl ag in which dillinger h tte holds 25.10 % . dillinger h tte also owns 50 % of the rogesa roheisengesellschaft iron smelting company whose blast furnaces located on the dillinger h tte plant site produce inter alia the hot metal liquid pig iron required for steel production . rogesa itself also has a stake in the zks zentralkokerei saar coking plant operator the facilities of which also form part of the dillinger h tte site . dillinger h tte produces heavy steel plate cast slag pots and semi finished products such as pressings and pressure vessel heads and shell sections . total production when the french subsidiary gts industries is included is well over two million tonnes of heavy plate annually in a thickness range extending from 6 to 440 mm making the company europe s largest heavy plate producer . this robust material is used for fabrication of drilling rigs ships petrochemicals plants bridges and heavy machinery ; reference projects include the resund bridge and the millau viaduct the moses mabhida stadium in durban and the luxury liner queen mary 2 . the striking arc of the olympic stadium in athens was also welded from plate supplied by dillinger h tte . the main application for dillinger h tte s heavy plate output however is the making of large caliber line pipe for major pipeline projects . the so called thermomechanical rolling process an extremely sophisticated rolling method which permits attainment of maximized mechanical properties combined with optimum working bending and welding characteristics is used for these products . dillinger h tte is also a 50 % owner of europipe gmbh europe s largest manufacturer of large caliber line pipe with facilities in germany france and the usa . dillingen is the only location in the saar region at which iron is smelted . the jointly owned rogesa blast furnace operator also supplies saarstahl the other co owner with hot metal . uses edit further examples of the use of steel from dillinger h tte the shanghai world financial center the third highest building in the world 492 m the commerzbank tower in frankfurt europe s highest office block the new york times tower in manhattan the turbines for china s three gorges dam the erasmus bridge rotterdam in addition plate from dillingen has now also entered the world of the fine arts in the form of sculptures by american artist richard serra one of which is on view at the guggenheim museum in bilbao . history edit in 1685 louis xiv of france the famous sun king granted approval to the marquis charles henri de l noncourt for the construction of an ironworks complete with a smelting furnace before the gates of the fortress of saarlouis . locational factors for the founding of this works were excellent the nearby prims river supplied the necessary water power the surrounding woods the fuel for the furnaces and the ore deposits in the immediate vicinity the feed materials for production . the first products were iron forgings nails and cast artifacts such as pots pans and so called takenplatten decorative iron plates that carried the heat of the kitchen over into the adjacent living space by conduction and radiation . production was gradually optimized over succeeding years with plate beginning to predominate in the mill s product mix as from 1802 following the construction of the first plate rolling mill in continental europe . these developments brought the factory to the forefront as prussia s largest black and tin plate producer . with approval from emperor napol on bonaparte dillinger h tte in 1809 became germany s first joint stock company and one of the first in europe . the company adopted the name anonyme gesellschaft der dillinger h ttenwerke in 1828 . state of the art rolling facilities and blast furnaces were installed and by the beginning of the 19th century the workforce had grown to over 2 500 . the so called dillingen platemaker s gauge covering twenty four different plate thicknesses had by then long become the definitive standard throughout europe . dillinger h tte was also well ahead of comparable companies in the social sphere an assistance and a pension fund were set up and a works hospital a residential estate for the plant s workers and a works school founded . the plant was 65 % destroyed during the second world war nearly 200 000 shells fell on the plant site . the consequences were months of clearance work and a completely fresh start . after the war dillinger h tte continued to place its faith in the future of steel investing in worldwide innovations such as the first slab caster in 1962 the new heavy plate rolling mill in 1971 the world s most powerful rolling stand in 1985 the slab caster for the world s thickest slabs in 1998 and the world s largest plate edge miller in 2005 . an interesting but little known fact dillinger h tte workers have traditionally been dubbed h ttenb ren or steel mill bears in the local region . this led logically enough to the company s day center for employees children being christened kleine h ttenb ren or the steel mill cubs at its opening in 2007 . external links edit dillinger h tte gts retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dillinger h tte & oldid 641386985 categories steel companies of germanyhidden categories articles lacking sources from september 2008all articles lacking sourceswikipedia 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