At the time of its creation, it inherited the historical facilities that Altos Hornos de Vizcaya had owned in Sagunto since the beginning of the 20th century.

However, the company's activity was strongly affected by the industrial crisis that the country experienced in the 70's and 80's, so that in 1984 the public administration agreed to cease its operations.

As early as 1917, a ferrous metallurgy-industrial complex had been built in the Sagunto area by the company Altos Hornos de Vizcaya (AHV).

[2][page needed] For this purpose, in 1971 the public limited company Altos Hornos del Mediterráneo (AHM)[3] was created, to which shortly afterwards Franco's government awarded the execution of the 4th Integral Ferrous Metallurgy Plant.

[8] RD 878/1981 also turned out to be insufficient, mainly due to the problem of the location of the hot strip mill (Spanish: tren de bandas en caliente, TBC).

This document authorized the modification of the hot strip trains of Ensidesa and AHV, not establishing the one recommended by the Kawasaki Report in Sagunto.

[17] The conflict persists in March, after the Minister of Industry, Carlos Solchaga, announces the Government's intention to continue with the closures of facilities at Ensidesa, AHV and AHM.

On September 9, the company's management informed the Works council that train number 28 of structural rolling mills would no longer be put into operation.

[20] In spite of the dissatisfaction of the people of Sagunto and the acts of protest —fifteen general strikes in 1983, blocking of the AP7 highway, demonstrations,[17] lock-in of the municipal council— on December 15, the Minister of Industry announced the closure of blast furnace number two for the 21st of the same month, as well as a redundancy plan as a consequence.

[17] On April 4, 1984, an agreement was reached between INI, the UGT and CCOO unions and the Works Committee of Altos Hornos del Mediterráneo for the closure of the head plant of the Sagunto ferrous metallurgy without any layoffs.