To prevent the surface flaws caused by surface defects in continuous casting and to obtain a hot-rolled steel plate excellent in the surface characteristic by removing scale once produced during heating a slab and again continuing the heating.

The slab 2 is charged from the charging hole 5 in a heating furnace 1 and the scale once produced on the slab 2 is removed with a scale removal device 4 for removing the scale by hitting the side surfaces of the slab with a metallic hammer and blasting gaseous nitrogen during heating. Thereafter, the heating is further continued and the slab 2 is made to be extracted from an extracting hole 6. In the longitudinal direction of the heating furnace 1, burners 3 for heating are arranged at the upper and the lower parts of the slab 2. By this method, even in the case of removing the scale, the inner oxidizing layer is not removed, the inner oxidizing quantity causing the surface flaw except casting defect is not increased. Therefore, the steel plate excellent in the surface characteristic can be obtd.