The invention relates to a method and a plant for producing ingots that have large cross-sections of different shapes and are more than 5 meters long, said method involving casting an ingot in a short, water-cooled ingot mold (4) and withdrawing the solidifying ingot (6) until the desired ingot length has been reached, whereupon the metal pool is heated using an electroslag remelting process with the help of consumable electrodes (18), or fresh molten metal is poured from a heated intermediate vessel (3) or a heatable cover (22), and the solidifying structure is influenced by using electromagnetic agitators (1, 11, 13) during the casting operation and upon completion of the casting operation until the ingot has completely solidified.