A method is provided for producing large steel ingots with increased yields by casting a steel ingot to the desired final size, removing metal to form an axial central cavity, melting a steel electrode under a fused slag in the axial cavity while simultaneously remelting and refining a proportionate controlled portion of the ingot wall surrounding the central cavity by action of the fused slag and solidifying the combined melted electrode and melted metal from the ingot wall integral with the remaining ingot shell to form a composite solid ingot mass.