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, Monlevade has been raising the ladle free open index through refractory quality improvement and standardization of operational parameters. The main actions were changing of the geometry of ladle well block and nozzle, use of two-layer sand, and control of sand residence time before BOF tapping. Based on these facts, the ladle free open index has increased from 98.5 to 99.8% from 2002 to 2006.