Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre

He was elected a deputy in 1914, and held office through World War I, then was a senator from 1920 until his death in 1928.

Early years

Weiller created the Société Lazare Weiller in 1883, with the first factory in Angoulême, and was the main owner of the enterprise.

The company was incorporated on 7 July 1883.

Weiller acquired land along the Paris–Le Havre railway and the new Canal de Tancarville in 1895, and in 1896 built a larger factory at Graville(fr) in the Le Havre region.

The choice of location was to take advantage of Le Havre as a port of entry for copper and a port from which to export products to England and the United States.

In 1898 the Le Havre factory had 14 steam engines with 8,300 horsepower and 114 electric machines.

The factory avoided employing great numbers of workers, but in 1897 had 900 employees, rising to almost 2,000 in 1913.

It covered about 20 hectares (49 acres) of which half was roofed.

It included forges, foundries, rolling mills and wireworks and processed copper, steel, aluminum, brass, bronze and nickel.

The bulk of the output was for electrical equipment and construction of telephone and telegraph lines.

In 1901 the company became the Compagnie des Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre (TLH).

Weiller became associated with Swiss banks, and from 1907 started to acquire facilities and companies to become a huge industrial complex.

The company, now a société anonyme, increased market share through purchase of the Société coopérative des fonderies, laminoirs et tréfileries de Rugles in 1907.

In 1911 TLH further increased its production of electrical wires and cables by merging with the Canalisation électrique company, giving it a dominant position in the industry, reducing competition and opening new markets in Paris streetcars, the PTT and other ministries, railways and so on.

Eugène Étienne was appointed to the TLH board in 1911, left this position when he became Minister of War in January 1913, then rejoined the board the next year and became president until his death in 1921.

Étienne was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 to 1919.

He was leader of the Colonial group in the chamber of deputies, and agitated for expansion of railway lines in the colonies.

He felt that the future of TLH lay in developing the railways and ports of the colonial empire.

Etienne was linked to Robert Pinot of the Comité des forges.

In 1913 the company's assets were 57,800,000 francs, making it the 22nd largest industrial company in France, and the third largest manufacturer of electrical equipment after the Compagnie Francaise Thomson-Houston and Compagnie Générale d'Electricité.

Members of the board of TLH were also involved in many other companies, helping the growth of the enterprise.

Examples were Henri Cahen, director of the Société des applications industrielles; Alphonse Hauser, retired chief engineer of the navy and administrator of the Compagnie des ports de Tunis, Sousse et Sfax; Raymond Jarry, administrator of the Société des hauts fourneaux de la Chiers; Gaston de La Mathe, administrator of the Société Éclairage électrique and Société Énergie du nord de la France; and René Robard, an engineer also on the board of Alluminio italiano.

Hippolyte Bouchayer, Émile Cahen, Henri Cahen, Raymond Jarry and René Robard were all members of the board of TLH and of its Italian subsidiary Le Trafilerie e laminatoi di metalli, which produced copper wire and steel and copper pipe for the Italian market, particularly the Italian armed forces.

Later history

The company later moved its headquarters to Paris and came to have factories in Le Havre, Rugles, Saint-Maurice, Grenoble, Charleval, la Praz, Dijon, Montreuil-Belfroy, Darnétal, Saint-Denis, La Courneuve, Poissy and Pont-de-Chéruy.

Eugène Mauclère (1857–1933), former controller-general of the army and councilor of state, a member of the board of the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée and vice-president of the Mokta-el-Hadid and Phosphates de Gafsa mining companies, joined the board of TLH as president in 1931.

In 1932 TLH was the largest manufacturers of copper, lead, zinc, tin and metal products in Le Havre, which now received 60% of copper imports into France thanks to its connections with North America.

The plant made wire, tubes and sheets of copper and steel which were then shipped to the mechanical construction and electrical industries.

A quarter of output went to the colonies.

As of 1939 TLH employed 4.673 workers in Le Havre.

During World War II (1939–45) in the period between 1940 and 1944 TLH had to deal with a shortage of copper, and made more use of aluminum and aluminum alloys.

From 1943 Henri Lafond was President of the Mines du Huaron and on the board of Tréfileries et Laminoirs du Havre.

A 1952 study said Trefileries et Laminoirs du Havre had a capital of 3,132 million francs and holdings in Hauts Fourneaux de la Chiers, Alais-Froges, Financiere Metallurgique Electrique, Lignes Telegraphiques et Telephoniques, Etablissements Bouchery, Signaux et Entreprises Electriques, Etablissements Coquillard and the Societe Procol.

TLH was also part-owner of Pechiney.

In 1967 Tréfimétaux was acquired by Pechiney and became the copper division of that group, contributing 8% of the group's total.

In 1971 Pechiney merged with Ugine Kuhlmann to form Pechiney Ugine Kuhlman (PUK).

From 1974 PUK suffered serious losses.

The threat of mass dismissals was first aired in 1974.

Between 1980 and 1987 the Tréfimétaux subsidiary reduced staff from 6,000 to 2,500 and closed the factories in Le Havre and Dives sur Mer.

In 1980 it sold its cable production activities to Pirelli.

The Tréfimétaux copper mill in Le Havre closed in 1980, and in 1981 Tréfimétaux closed its remaining operations in Le Havre.

It was succeeded by three companies: Cuivres et Alliages; Chiers, Châtillon Gorcy (which later became Hauts Fourneaux de la Chiers and then Technor); and Thomson Cables.

Cuivres et Alliages was closed in 1984.

In 1986 Tecnor, manufacturing wire cables and conductors, took an area of 158,000 square metres (1,700,000 sq ft) of the La Havre factories, of which 74,000 square metres (800,000 sq ft) were covered, with a line of casting, continuous rolling and wire drawing machines.

Technor ceased operations in 1989–90.

In January 2003 Tréfileries et Câbleries du Havre had 72 employees, falling to about 30 in April 2003.