Currently, the blast furnace (BF) to basic oxygen furnace (BOF) is the dominant steel production route in the steel industry. The direct CO2 emission in this process system exceeds 1 t of CO2/t of crude steel produced. Different ferrous burden materials, for instance iron ore and scrap, can be used in various proportions in this steelmaking route. This paper analyses how energy use, conversion costs, and CO2 emissions can be influenced by the use of different ferrous burden materials when producing crude steel. An optimisation mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model has been applied for analysis. By the use of the optimisation model, it is possible to highlight some issues of special importance, such as best practices to increase production at low conversion cost, or best practices to increase production at low CO2 emission. It is found out that more benefits will be gained when using the system-oriented analysis to the steelmaking process. Furthermore, a comprehensive view of the trade-offs between the objectives of Cost and CO2 can provide useful information for decision makers to generate strategies under the future emission trading. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.