PURPOSE: To manufacture efficiently a slab free from surface defects from a round material by rolling the axis of a material having a round cross section after arranging it parallelly to a roll axis.

CONSTITUTION: A material S having a round cross section is transferred to rolling rolls 1, 2 by a conveying device D. Next, the material S is bitten by rolls 1, 2 after arranging the axial center of material S parallely to the axes of rolls 1, 2 with the aid of a pushing device P. And the material S is rolled in a state that the axial center of material S is approximately parallel to the axes of rolls 1, 2. Thus a slab free from surface defects is efficiently manufactured from a round material.