A former large steel plant in western Romania is gradually changing its appearance. In the summer of 2025, the industrial complex in Hunedoara ceased its activity. It was recently acquired by the UMB group, and the new owners have started the first works.
The steel mill in Hunedoara has a history of almost a century and a half and was, during this period, the industrial center around which the municipality of Hunedoara developed.
The first furnaces of the Hunedoara Iron Works began their activity in 1884. From the 50s, the old plants were expanded and transformed into a plant that operated in continuous flow until the end of the 90s.
Meanwhile, several production facilities deemed unviable, including the already four-decade-old Siemens-Martin steelworks, the Cocseria, the Agglomerator and the blast furnaces, were closed, decommissioned and demolished, leaving the former combine as a steel mill and rolling mill plant, employing fewer than 3,000 people in the early 2000s.
A new beginning for the joint from Hunedoara
The former steel plant was privatized in 2003, after a series of restructurings started in the mid-90s, which led to the reduction of the number of employees from 20,000 in 1991 to around 2,500 in 2004, when the plants were taken over by the ArcelorMittal group.
In the summer of 2025, the Steel and Rolling Mill of the former large steel complex still had a little over 500 employees and was producing the last tons of steel from the “Mittal era”. In the fall of 2025, the company announced the closure of the Hunedoara plant and the layoff of its employees.
At the beginning of 2026, the assets of ArcelorMittal Hunedoara, covering an area of 250 hectares, were sold to the company UMB Steel SRL, for 12.5 million euros.
“In total, the transaction concerns approximately 1,060,000 sq m of land within the perimeter of the industrial site, 494,000 sq m of land located outside the site and 928,000 sq m, representing the slag dump and its related lands”shows the document published by ArcelorMittal Hunedoara.
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At the end of 2024, the same company patronized by the family of the businessman Dorinel Umbrărescu, known for the construction of several highways, had acquired the plants from Oțelu Roșu, Caraș-Severin county, and shortly after they began their restoration, after the former owners brought them to a state of ruin.
The plants in Oțelu Roşu (video), which ceased operations in 2013, are being modernized, and the project aims to put into operation the new rolling mill, with a capacity of about 700,000 tons of steel per year, which will be integrated into the existing steel complex.
After the old plant at Oțelu Roșu, which underwent renovation and modernization in 2025, work has recently begun on the steel plant in Hunedoara, which is also in a state of disrepair similar to that of the Banatul Montan complex.
The jungle of the compound in Hunedoara, deforested
The complex in Hunedoara, with an area of over 150 hectares outside its slag dump, had reached a state of visible degradation, and the area around its sections had become a veritable jungle.
“In recent years, nothing has been invested in this complex. Its installations have been left to deteriorate, the necessary repairs in the steelworks have not come, and the lands around it have remained unkempt. Everything looked desolate”says a former employee of the combine.
The new owners proceeded to clearing and sanitizing dozens of hectares of vacant land that gave the former compound the appearance of an abandoned place, possessed by the wild. The recently started works are taking place every day, including Saturdays and Sundays, pending the reactivation of the former Hunedoara complex, expected in the next two years.
