HOT ROLLING METHOD

A hot rolling method using a hot finishing mill including a pair of work rolls each having a taper ground end at one end of its barrel and arranged one above the other with the taper ground ends being on opposite sides so as to locate both edges of a plate-like material to be rolled in respective zones of the taper ground ends. According to the invention the work rolls are cyclically shifted in their axial directions within a range so as not to permit the both edges of the material to come out of the taper ground ends of the work rolls, thereby preventing edge built-ups of the material and simultaneously effecting crown-controlling of the rolled material. The work rolls are finely shifted and simultaneously a bending action is applied to the work rolls in a manner to eliminate a bending action acting upon the work rolls caused by the material being rolled by the work rolls. The work rolls are cyclically shifted, while a distance from an edge of the material to a starting point of the taper ground end of the work roll nearliest to the edge of the material is variably set so as to decrease dependently upon increase of thermal expansion of the work rolls. Stepwise variation in shifting distance of the work rolls per unit number of rolled material is varied in a rolling cycle.