Hot rolling is used mainly to produce sheet metal or simple cross sections, such as rail tracks. In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through a pair of rolls. According to the temperature of the metal rolled, rolling is classified as hot rolling and cold rolling. If the temperature of the metal is above its recrystallization temperature, then the process is termed as hot rolling, and needless to say, has to be done in the hot rolling mill. On the other hand, if the temperature of the metal is below its recrystallization temperature, the process is termed as cold rolling.

       Hot rolling is a metalworking process that occurs above the recrystallization temperature of the material. After the grains deform during processing, they recrystallize, which maintains an equiaxed microstructure and prevents the metal from work hardening. Slabs are the feed material for hot strip mills or plate mills and blooms are rolled to billets in a billet mill or large sections in a structural hot rolling mill.

       Hot rolled metals generally have little directionality in their mechanical properties and deformation induced residual stresses. Nonetheless, in certain instances non-metallic inclusions will impart some directionality and workpieces less than 20 mm (0.79 in) thick often have some directional properties.