3.1.2. Europe

The Second World War created a situation before west European nations that they had to turn towards cooperation rather than competing with each other. Six countries joined together to form a cooperative community in 1952. France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy became its members. In 1973, United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark also joined it. It

is known as European Coal and Steel Community. The major objective of the community is to provide facilities for the supply of iron ore and coal to the members of the community without any hindrance. Earlier, iron and steel industry in Europe was closely linked with coal mines but now some industries have moved to the port towns and some have been established near the iron ore mines.

The iron and steel industry in Europe has developed in France-Belgium, Loraine (France) – Luxembourg – Saar (Germany), Ruhr (Germany) and north, north-eastern and central parts of United Kingdom. Loraine has the largest iron-ore reserve in Europe. Ruhr region has high quality coking coal. Rhine River and the canal network developed in the region provide cheap water transport. Demand for iron and steel in the local industries is large as most of the west European countries have high level of industrialisation.

In United Kingdom some iron and steel industries are located near the coal mines such as Birmingham. Some are located near the iron ore mines such as Fordingham and some are located near the ports like Talbot. Other iron and steel producing countries of Europe are Sweden, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Iron and steel industry has developed in southern Ukraine which is based on the iron ore from Krivoy Rog and Kerch peninsula, coal from Donetsk Basin (Donbas) and local manganese. The Ural region is another important steel producing region of Russia. Iron ore in this region is obtained from Magnet Mountains, coal from Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbas) and Karaganda basin. Trans-Siberian railway provides surface transport. Sverdlovsk, Magnitogorsk and Nizhny Tagil are major iron and steel centres. Besides these major regions, Iron and steel industry has also been located in Kuzbas and Caucasus region.