Urban exploration - The Black Factory

This documentary focuses on the former CEGRAM plant, which later became SGL Carbon. It was an industrial site located in Engis, Belgium, dedicated to the production of graphite electrodes. Established in 1972, it ceased operations in 2007. We refer to it as "the black factory" due to its tall, monolithic tower—dark, monotonous, and imposing.

Historical Overview

Aerial views from 1971 show the land was still used for grazing. However, it is worth noting that the soil contained slag; this was the grim assessment made by Spaque in 2005, suggesting prior industrial activity. The plant was established in 1972 and ran at full capacity until 1996. Faced with increasingly fierce Chinese competition, the plant lost momentum and began incurring significant losses. In 1999, a large portion of the workforce was laid off. The factory struggled on by producing screened petroleum coke. During this period, numerous buildings on the western flank were demolished, specifically those between the offices and the screening tower. Eventually, the factory fell into complete bankruptcy. All production stopped in 2007, and the site was placed into judicial liquidation.

Following the bankruptcy, an investment group was tasked with the site's demolition. However, a tragic event occurred following a dispute over payment for evacuated materials. One of the group members, Manuel Maroquin, was shot twice in the head as he left his home on the night of March 7–8, 2005, in Xhendremael. Four individuals were accused of ordering the hit and participating in the execution. The case was tried at the Liège Assize Court in January 2014.

After five trials and ten and a half years of legal proceedings, the main suspected mastermind was acquitted for the third time. The ruling is now final, and the chapter is officially closed.

Today, the site exists in a state of total abandonment and neglect. It has become a frequent venue for rave parties, which have left the factory in an indescribable state of ruin. Everything has been smashed or defiled; trash is piled meters high, and waste is frequently set on fire. Firefighters intervened for a major blaze in early 2018.

During a rave on June 10, 2018, a participant from Sclessin, Geoffrey Bengler, died in the Meuse River. Meanwhile, the factory’s physical state is alarming. Many structures are dangerous—particularly in the screening tower, where the welded metal sheets are suffering from severe corrosion.

Site Geography

At the entrance sit the offices and the Securitas guard post. Behind them, along the Meuse, lies the maintenance workshop, now completely destroyed. To the south is the "Black Tower," which housed the coal grinding unit and twelve adjacent silos. To the west is the impregnation unit. The baking kilns and the single-wire graphitization workshops have been demolished. To the east, the machining and shipping workshops have been dismantled. The "Lengthwise" graphitization area is currently inhabited by a friendly marten. To the northwest is a 70 kV electrical substation.

The central process-oriented part of the plant consisted of:
ARTE Workshop (The Black Tower)
Baking Workshop (Stein CDF kilns)
Impregnation Workshop
Graphitization Workshop (UF and L kilns)
CDF (GP and L kilns)
Usico Workshop
Peeling and Lipolan Workshop
Electrical and Mechanical Maintenance Workshops
Laboratory (within the offices)
Machining & Packaging Workshop
General Warehouse

Peeling is a machining process that removes the outer crust from raw graphite as it exits the kiln to ensure a surface free of casting defects. Lipolan is an aqueous dispersion of a styrene-buta-1,3-diene copolymer.

The Screening Tower

Photographic documentation focuses heavily on the tower, as vandals have decimated the rest of the site. The 13-story "Black Tower" housed the grinding and screening units:

Floors 10–13: Dust collection and cyclone.
Floor 9: Shift screeners, general dust collection screws, and a pivoting chute.
Floor 8: Concrete access slab to the silos with shuttle, conveyor, and shutters.
Floor 7: Shutters.
Floor 6: Burner-equipped dryers and two extractors leading to the chimneys.
Floor 5: Screens and two extractors.
Floor 4: Four extractors.
Floor 3: One grinder and two extractors.
Floor 2: Three extractors and access to the (dismantled) overhead crane.
Floor 1: Screens and a conveyor belt.
Floor 0: Empty; everything has been dismantled or destroyed by fierce vandalism.

Notably, the higher you climb, the better preserved the equipment remains. It seems the vandals lacked the stamina to climb to the top to finish their destruction.

Detailed Factory History

The factory was founded on March 9, 1972, under the name CEGRAM (Compagnie de l’Électrographite de la Meuse). On April 28, 1994, it was renamed SGL CARBON (Sigri Great Lakes Carbon), following a merger between Péchiney Carbone and SIGRI GREAT LAKES CARBON GmbH, bringing the site under German parent management.

In 1972, under the aegis of Péchiney and Tractebel, the plant began producing graphite electrodes. Production started in 1973 with electrodes 400–500 mm in diameter and 1800 mm long, weighing up to 800 kg. These were primarily used in the steel industry.

By 1976, technical improvements introduced styrene-butadiene impregnation. Production capacity grew to 600 mm diameters (now a standard size) and lengths up to 2700 mm.

A major commercial crisis hit in 1986. A surplus of graphite led to a price war, forcing Péchiney to restructure. Half the staff was laid off. To survive, Cegram specialized in large-diameter electrodes, subcontracting smaller sizes to the Chedde plant in Haute-Savoie. By 1990, the kilns had transitioned to continuous production.

At its peak, the site employed 300 people. After the 1986 crisis, this was reduced to 152. The Black Tower, surprisingly nicknamed the "Greenshop" locally, operated with three shifts, five days a week.

The decline became permanent due to unfair Asian competition and unexplained surface cracks in 1% of the production. In 1999, the German parent company ended electrode production in Belgium, laying off 130 of the remaining 154 employees. Environmental standards also became an issue, despite investments in dry filter scrubbers.

Ultimately, high labor costs and employer taxes in Belgium compared to SGL's eight other European subsidiaries sealed the site's fate. After years of "ticking over" by recycling graphite waste, the site went into full liquidation in 2007.

The site was dismantled in two stages: the graphitization units in the late 90s, and the metal recovery in 2008. Today, the site is completely abandoned. Following the rave-related death, Liège magistrates banned all access. The land still belongs to SGL Carbon and is classified as a redevelopment site. The industrial death of the site was inevitable, hence our work of remembrance. 2023 Update: The factory has been completely razed to the ground.