Copper and nickel are accumulated in steels when steel scrap is used as steel sources. It is well known that copper causes hot shortness problem and nickel suppresses the effect of copper. In this paper, the behaviour of copper and nickel during oxidation is investigated. Steels containing copper and nickel were oxidized and the distribution of copper and nickel in the scale was examined. It was found that copper is not only enriched at the scale/metal interface but also exists in upper magnetite layer as a state of solid solution and along grain boundaries of the wustite layer as metal phase. From these results an assumption has been proposed that the liquid copper migrates from the scale/metal interface to the magnetite layer along the grain boundaries. On the other hand, nickel enriched in steel side near the scale/metal interface with copper. The metal particles containing nickel and copper remain inside the scale. Nickel also has an effect of the uneven scale/metal interface formation.