2. Ensidesa ( Empresa Nacional Siderúrgica, S.A.; Steel National Company, PLC ) was a very important factory in the history of Avilés. It’s a very big steel factory.
3. It was founded in 1950 by the government of the dictator Franco in order to improve the economic development in Spain. The factory began to operate in 1956 and the first of its four blast furnaces was inaugurated on 24th September 1957. It was called Carmen , like Franco’s wife. The other three blast furnaces were Joaquina (inaugurated in November 1958 ), Rosario (August 1966) and IV Carmen (July 1969). On the right, the picture shows habitat caissons used in the construction of Ensidesa. They were called “Campanas” (bells) and they were very dangerous. Many people died under them.
4. In 1975, Ensidesa had 27,244 employees who were directly taken on, but other side factories which were born due to Ensidesa, gave jobs to 43,000 people. Many people came to work to Asturias and to Avilés from Andalucía, Galicia and Castilla y León due to the industrial development that this zone had.
5. Avilés used to have over 20,000 inhabitants in 1950, but in 1979 the population reached the number of 91,274 inhabitants. This rapid population growth generated a big problem: the immigrants didn’t have a home. Because of that, many neighborhoods were built for Ensidesa’s workers: Llaranes, Trasona, La Tejera, La Luz, Buenavista, La Carriona, Versalles… La Luz Trasona Llaranes
6. Ensidesa also had a school for future workers ( Escuela de aprendices ), and a sports club ( Club Deportivo Ensidesa ). The people who worked in Ensidesa and their families had a small hospital at their disposal (the Hospitalillo ). Llaranes
7. The factory had many changes in its name due to several mergings and acquisitions: at first, it was called Ensidesa, as from December 1994 until 1997, CSI ( Corporación Siderúrgica Integral ); then, Aceralia. Aceralia became a private company which merged with Arbed and Usinor, (two steel companies) in February 2002. The product of the merging was Arcelor. The company has been called ArcelorMittal since 2006, when it was bought by Mittal-Steel.
