In 1972 the first two blast furnaces were decommissioned. In the same year (1972) the IJmuiden steelworks ("Hoogovens IJmuiden BV".) were formed into a 50:50 joint venture named Estel with Hoesch of Germany as the other partner, which merged its Dortmund steel plant into the concern. IJmuiden, with good access to seaborn raw materials, was to act primarily as a raw steel supplier to the plant in Germany, which was closer to a large market for finished steel products. The steel crisis of the 1970s prevented any positive expansion and the company was disbanded in 1982 when funding arrangements for the loss-making Dortmund plant could not be agreed.