Method for producing grain-oriented electrical steel sheet

A method for producing a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet comprising

• heating a steel slab having an ingredient composition containing C:
• 0.02 to 0.10 mass %, Si:
• 2.5 to 5.5 mass %, Mn:
• 0.01 to 0.30 mass %, S:
• 0.0010 to 0.040 mass %, Se:
• 0 to 0.040 mass %, sol. Al:
• 0.010 to 0.040 mass %, and N:
• 0.004 to 0.020 mass % with a remaining part comprising Fe and inevitable impurities;
• hot rolling the slab;
• subjecting the hot-rolled sheet to, optionally, hot-band annealing and then to one cold rolling or two or more cold rollings with an intermediate annealing between each cold rolling to form a cold-rolled sheet with a final sheet thickness;
• subjecting the cold-rolled sheet to primary recrystallization annealing which also serves as decarburization annealing;
• applying an annealing separator to the steel sheet surface;
• and
• subjecting the sheet to finishing annealing,
• characterized in that
• the slab is heated to 1300° C. or higher;
• a slab lateral face temperature T when starting rough rolling during the hot rolling is equal to or lower than a temperature Te defined by Expression (1) presented below,
• T
• e
• =
• -
• 120000
• [
• %
• ⁢
• S
• ]
• 2
• +
• 1400
• (
• 1
• )
• where [% S] denotes a S content (mass %) in the slab;
• and
• width reduction is carried out after at least one pass in the rough rolling.