PURPOSE: To apply moderate reduction control to the innermost wound part of a coil and to improve the accuracy of plate thickness at the tail end part of the coil by controlling the plate thickness at the tail end part of the coil behind a lock on part at a downstream side stand through the feed forward system.

CONSTITUTION: In a hot strip mill provided with a coil box 11, at the same time that the innermost wound part of the coil making the tail end part of the coil arrives at the mill, the AGC by the feed forward system is executed to the innermost wound part of the coil. As a result, a moderate reduction control is given to the innermost wound part of the coil to improve the accuracy of plate thickness at the tail end of the coil and the yield in rolling.