A combined arc furnace, ladle metallurgical furnace and vacuum degassing system having the flexibility to produce at least non-vacuum arc remelt, vacuum arc remelt, vacuum oxygen decarburised non-vacuum arc remelt, and vacuum oxygen decarburised vacuum arc remelt steels from one off to continuous casting end uses in steady state or randomised order which utilises only a minimum of energy attributable to preheating hot metal contacting components of the system followed by heat loss reduction of the components and use of a carryover heel in the arc furnace, in which the throughput of the system is limited solely by the melting capacity of the arc furnace.