An increasing proportion of global steel is made using electric arc furnaces, and the electric arc furnace itself is getting more efficient, making more steel per tonne of electrode.
After melting in an electric arc furnace and alloying in an argon oxygen decarburization vessel, steels destined for vacuum remelting are cast into ingot molds.
Open-hearth furnaces were widely employed until the 1970s when the basic oxygen furnace, electric arc furnace and continuous casting made them obsolete.