Deliver with excellence
Deliver with excellence
Socea draws on decades of expertise to deliver first-class durable concrete pipe solutions for critical infrastructure. From nuclear power plants to district heating and drinking water, our custom and standard products always meet even your most stringent demands. Committed to excellence, sustainability, health, and safety, we supply personalized solutions backed by agile in-house engineering services that support the most challenging projects, now and in the future.
Our values
At Socea, we are driven by our core values:
Quality
Delivering world-class standards in all products and services.
Flexibility
Adapting rapidly to meet the needs of markets and customers.
Involvement & co-creation
Working closely with customers to create personalized solutions.
Honesty & openness
Building long-term partnerships with transparent communication.
What’s in it for you?
What sets us apart at Socea is our expertise in high-performance concrete piping, from sheet steel cores and press pipes to special applications that meet the needs of your project. End-to-end engineering services power our Design & Build approach, delivering personalized solutions with shorter lead times than larger organizations. Our customers count on our consistently efficient logistics, including in-house storage, and our reliability across the supply chain. From start to finish, we help drive your success. Are you in?
Our history
Socea was founded in 1933. The concrete pipe factory that was built in Oelegem (Belgium) back then remains the heart and soul of the company – a place where craftmanship and expertise rule.
French group Pont-à-Mousson (now Saint-Gobain) forms Société Anversoise de Foncière Industrielles (SAFI). A factory is built by the Albert Canal in Oelegem, 20km east of Antwerp, to produce ATO pipes (âme-tôle ordinaire or sheet metal core tubes), the best choice for leakproof and vapor-proof high-pressure water pipes.
The factory is destroyed during World War II but is rebuilt.
A drastic decline in demand for sheet steel core tubes leads to the temporary closure of the factory. Lines are maintained, however, to enable a rapid restart when demand picks up.
The factory reopens as Socea, after the company wins a contract to supply 1050mm sheet steel core tubes for the Elst-Espinette water pipeline near Ghent. Production diversifies to include reinforced concrete jacking pipes, establishing Socea as a key supplier of turnkey pressure pipe solutions. Significant R&D investments are made in new production techniques.
Socea expands to produce reinforced concrete pipes, jacking pipes, and large-diameter sheet steel core tubes (over 2500mm). Later, Socea supplies core tubes for the cooling water circuits of the Doel and Tihange nuclear power plants. Production continues to diversify with concrete pipes for gravity flow, prefab tramway tracks, and bus lanes.
Socea is acquired by Denys but operates independently, supplying leading contractors across Europe.
After a management buyout, Socea becomes an independent company within the Denys Global group. As a European leader in large-diameter concrete pipes, Socea continues to prioritize R&D, creating innovative, project-specific solutions both at the factory and on-site.