Abstract: The causes of head splits of a workpiece in hot rolling process of free-cutting stainless steel were analyzed. It was found that there is a relationship between the head splits and morphology of sulphides in the steel. A thermomechanical simulation test was therefore carried out to investigate the effect of reheating temperature on the sulphide morphology, and the optimum range of reheating temperature was determined as 1200~1280°C. Then, some measures were taken to get rid of the heat splits, such as controlling the cooling water at the workpiece head, using the new-type guide/guard system and adding a flying shear to cut the workpiece head. Thus, the intermediate rejection rate was decreased from 5.67% to 1.38%. Now the different rolled products of BT303CuS steel has come into batch production in Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd..