An apparatus for continuous production of hot-rolled strips, comprising a line including a continuous metal casting means for casting metal into a thin slab, a slab storage means, a through slab soaking-pit means, a rolling for rolling the slab into a strip in the form of individual protions in several runs with return of a portion being rolled to the storage means, a strip cooler means, a cutting means, and a means for coiling the rolled strip, characterized by the fact that the through soaking-pit means comprises a roller-hearth furnace, the storage means comprises at least one carriage provided outside the roller-hearth furnace for movement therealong, and a means for forming an intermediate coil of the slab and of the returned portion of the strip, said means being installed on the carriage and having a driven roll having a diametrical slot and a pair of drawing rollers along, and on either side of the roll positioned in the soaking-pit furnace over its rollers (11), the side walls of the furnace having longitudinally extending apertures receiving the ends of shafts of the driven roll and drawing rollers.