SERAING

municipality, Lige province, eastern Belgium. It lies along the Meuse River, 6 miles (10 km) upstream from Lige. Seraing is a historic hub of Belgium's iron, steel, and machine-building industries. In 1817 the English industrialist John Cockerill founded in Seraing what was to become one of the largest ironmaking and machinery complexes in Europe. The Cockerill works built the first steam locomotives on the European continent (1835) and was the first to use the Bessemer process in steel production (1863). The chteau of the prince-bishops of Lige, which had been acquired by Cockerill, became the headquarters of the amalgamated Cockerill-Ougre Company in 1955 and continues to house some of the firm's offices. In 1979 the government of Belgium became a participant in the company's ownership as part of a reorganization of all of Belgium's steel companies; the firm merged again in 1981 to form Cockerill Sambre SA. An old Cistercian abbey located at the edge of the town is now the Val Saint-Lambert glassworks, one of the largest in Europe. Pop. (1991) mun., 60,838; (1993 est.) 61,225.