A ladle furnace is located between the converter and the continuous casting plant in the steelworks production process and is used in secondary metallurgy to treat the liquid steel. The new double ladle furnace in Duisburg has a capacity of 265 tons per treatment. Its main task is to heat the molten metal. The ladle furnace can be used to treat high-alloy steels that contain more than five percent alloying agents, such as manganese. With the help of this facility, optimized purity levels and thus increased quality can be achieved, enabling the development and production of innovative high-tech materials such as high-strength and particularly resistant types of steel for lightweight automotive construction.