To achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, the steel industry is currently facing an urgent need for transformation and upgrading. Due to the long development cycle and high cost of the experimental methods, simulation methods of high accuracy and high efficiency are playing an important role in realizing the intelligent and green technology of the steel industry. However, the applicable simulation toolkits are lacking due to the complexity and diversity of the iron-making and steel-making processes. This article introduces the possibility to realize a high-performance, more accurate multiscale discrete particle simulation method based on the consistency of the logic and structure between the problem, model, software, and hardware, namely the EMMS paradigm. Some preliminary applications on the optimization of apparatus structures and operating conditions in the steel industry are summarized, e.g., enhancing the iron ore raw material separation process by adding the permanent magnets, optimizing the structure of the inlet region of a sinter vertically arranged cooler for higher heat recovery efficiency, optimizing the operation of the rotating drum to enhance the throughput of dealing with the steel slag, and the operational optimization of the burden distribution in the blast furnace to reduce the coke consumption. These successful applications demonstrate that the multiscale discrete particle simulation method is becoming a powerful tool for the steel industry. Thus, the realization of the higher level tool for transformation and upgrading of the steel industry, namely virtual process engineering (VPE), is prospected, which requires integrating the multi-scale discrete particle simulation with online measurement, artificial intelligence (AI), interactive simulation, virtual reality (VR) and online control.