To explain several of the effects observed in industrial electrometallurgy and related to the passage of electric current within liquid metal or fused salts it is necessary to examine the flows arising near inhomogeneous inclusions in the current-carrying fluid. These effects include the deposition of non-conducting impurities on the walls of channels in induction smelting furnaces, an organized motion of the metal droplets during the processes of electroslag welding and remelting, and others. A knowledge of the mechanisms by which the electric current affects rigid and gaseous inclusions, in the fluid may prove to be useful in the design of devices for particle separation, for composite material production, and so on. The issues concerning the behaviour of objects in the current-carrying fluid also include electrically propelled bodies containing an internal electric current source.