Some of the progress made in our laboratories in collaboration with industry in research and development work on high performance oxide-nonoxide composites for metallurgical applications has been reviewed. (1) SiAlON bonded corundum composites for blast furnace usage have been produced by reduction-nitridation sintering at high temperature, using bauxite instead of alumina in the matrix. (2) Low carbon Al2O3–SiAlON slide plate materials successfully used in high quality steel continuous casting have been developed in which most or all of the graphite in Al2O3–C brick is replaced by bauxite-based β-SiAlON. (3) Al/Si metal bonded Al2O3–C material characterized by low carbon content, low firing temperature and in situ formation of carbides and nitrides at high temperature during service are found to possess very high hot strength and very good thermal shock resistance and have also been successfully used as slide plates in ladles and tundishes for high quality steel casting.