ArcelorMittal Monlevade is an integrated plant with sinter plant,blast furnace, BOF, ladle furnace, continuous caster, and rolling mill,with a capacity of 1.2 million tpy. During the last years, Monlevadehas been raising the ladle free open index through refractory qualityimprovement and standardization of operational parameters. The mainactions were changing of the geometry of ladle well block and nozzle,use of two-layer sand, and control of sand residence time before BOFtapping. Based on these facts, the ladle free open index has increasedfrom 98.5 to 99.8% from 2002 to 2006.