Method for producing a semifinished product from synthetic quartz glass Methods for producing a semifinished product from synthetic quartz glass by plastic deformation of a softened SiO2 mass in a melt mold are known. Starting from this, to avoid fusion defects as much as possible and to obtain semifinished products of quartz glass in a reproducibly high quality, a method is suggested that comprises the following steps: (a) providing a porous SiO2 soot body, (b) zonewise sintering of the SiO2 soot body in the melt mold at a sintering temperature and during a sintering period with formation of a completely sintered transparent quartz glass body, and directly thereafter (c) shaping the sintered quartz glass body by softening in the melt mold with formation of a viscous quartz glass mass which fills the volume of the melt mold entirely or partly, and (d) cooling the quartz glass mass and removing the mass from the melt mold with formation of the semifinished product.