The ladle of the BOF vessel is preheated, in order not to cause excessive temperature drop when filled with steel. Ladle preheating is estimated to require about 0.02 GJ of energy per ton of steel.  The efficiency of the ladle preheating can be improved by using an efficient burner, properly scheduling the heating times and reducing heating durations, monitoring temperatures, installing hoods to reduce raidative losses, and by using recuperative and oxyfuel burners.  

 In a Japanese plant significant improvements in ladle heating were realized through the introduction of a new high-speed, on-line heating apparatus and by developing a control system that combined this heating system with the control of blowing in a BOF (Worrell, et. al. 2010. p. 89).

 In another plant in India, signficant improvements in the ladle preheating energy use was achieved by replacing the hose system for gas delivery into a telescopic pipe system, which increased the gas flow from 375 to 480 Nm³/h and significantly reduced heating times (Novamesh).

There are various other measures that can typically reduce the energy consumption between 25 to 50%.  This option is regarded to have high application potential for China, India and the US.