Abstract: A furnace atmosphere control strategy that took into account both fuel combustion and the heating process of the slab in the hot rolling reheating furnace was proposed to address the issue of oxide scale formation on the slab. By setting a weakly reducing atmosphere with a smaller air excess coefficient in the soaking zone and an oxidizing atmosphere with a larger air excess coefficient in the heating zone, and combining the “flue gas oxygen content feedback + gas calorific value feedforward”air-fuel ratio control method, the formation of oxide scale on high-temperature slabs could be effectively suppressed. Based on this control strategy, an atmosphere control system for the reheating furnace was established. Under the condition of ensuring a slag removal cycle of 7 months for the reheating furnace, the average oxidation burning loss rate of the steel billet decreased from 1.41% to 1.02%. This system provided a reference for the atmosphere adjustment of similar reheating furnaces.