A procedure is provided for producing steel from solid, iron containing pieces such as scrap iron, solid pig iron, iron pellets, iron sponge and the like. The iron containing pieces are smelted in a blown oxygen converter equipped with submerged injection devices for oxygen and pulverized fuel. The pieces are first introduced into the converter and preheated and then they are contacted with a sufficient quantity of molten steel to substantially reduce the length of the smelting period and thereby conserve fuel. The molten steel used in the contacting step is recycled from the previous batch after having been retained for the meanwhile in a separate auxiliary ladle.