The first blast furnace at Monlevade Works, based on charcoal,
started up in 1937. Since then the route blast furnace-oxygen
steelmaking has been used. In the course of the time,
Monlevade Works ironmaking area went past some changes
until reaching the present situation: one sinter plant and one
blast furnace based on coke. This blast furnace started up in
December 1999 and its nominal capacity is 1,040,000 thm/
year. This paper aims at showing the evolution of blast furnace
operational performance, within a seven year operation which
allowed a production of 1,103,935 thm in 2006.