In 1993, CSN adopted a capital improvement program, which was revised and extended in 1995. The goals were: an increase in annual production of crude steel; improvement in productivity, increase in the quality of the products, and enhancement of the environmental protection and cleanup programs. Since February 1996, all production has been based on the continuous casting process, rather than ingot casting, an alternative method that resulted in lower energy use and metal loss. From 1996 through 2002, CSN spent the equivalent of US$2.4 billion under the capital improvement program and for operational capacity maintenance, culminating with the revamping in 2001 of Blast Furnace #3 and Hot Strip Mill #2 at the Presidente Vargas Steelworks increasing annual production capacity to 5.6 million tons of crude steel and 5.1 million tons of rolled products, from approximately 5.0 million tons in each case.