In a process for producing a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet having a mirror surface containing 0.8 to 4.8% of Si, 0.012 to 0.05% of soluble Al, less than 0.01% of N, 0.02 to 0.3% of Mn, and 0.005 to 0.040% of S, in the form of a strip which has been subjected to a conventional series of operations including hot rolling with or without annealing, cold rolling once or at least twice with intermediate annealing to obtain a final thickness, decarburization annealing, coating with an annealing separator mainly containing non-hydrating oxide and final annealing, the improvement comprising:
- satisfying the relationship
- A!>0.2.times. O!
- where A! is the total concentration of alkali metal content in the annealing separator (weight %), and
- O! is the amount of oxygen contained in the steel sheet just prior to the final annealing (g/m.sup.2).