PURPOSE: To decrease rolling load to prevent the generation of surfaces flaws on a product in the stage of the titled hot finish rolling by positively loading tension to a steel strip between stands.

CONSTITUTION: A looper 2 provided with a load cell 5 is disposed between tandem finishing mills 1 and 1' and the position of the looper 2 is so controlled as to maintain a prescribed position by a looper motor 4. On the other hand, the looper roll load detected by the cell 5 is converted to the tension loaded to the steel strip by a tension calculator 6. The speed of a motor 8 for driving the rolling mill 1 is controlled to eliminate the deviation between said load and a reference tension value 7 to control the tension of the steel strip between the stands to 5W20kg/mm2. Transverse shrinkage arises when the tension is exerted to the steel strip in this stage but the quantity thereof depends extremely strongly on steel kinds. The transverse shrinkage quantity of an austenitic stainless steel is generally much smaller as compared with general low-carbon steels. The deterioration in the dimensional accuracy of the product is therefore of no problem.