Heat consumption and steel loss for scale determine the costs of a heating process. The heating rate influences both. This paper evaluates the heating rate of a long charge made of three various materials, depending on the changes of the furnace atmosphere on the rotary furnace circumference. Numerical computing was performed based on a formulated heat transfer model in the rotary furnace chamber, while considering the growth of the scale layer. One heating curve was selected, which has allowed the heating time to be reduced by 36% while limiting the scale loss by 40%. It was also shown that the thermal stresses and strains should not lead to fractures of the charge heated.