Method of controlling the cross section of a wire rod strand emerging from a wire rod mill line

A wire rod mill for rolling a rolled wire rod strand, the mill comprising:

• a series of mill stands for rolling a wire rod strand and including an intermediate unit of rolling stands;
• a finish rolling unit downstream in a travel direction of the strand of said intermediate unit and including at least one finishing mill stand, the finish rolling unit including at least one horizontal-roll mill stand and at least one vertical-roll mill stand arranged in succession along a path of said strand with the rolls of at least one of the horizontal-roll and vertical-roll stands being individually adjustable or individually drivable;
• and
• means for altering the cross section of the wire rod strand during the rolling by controlled application of traction to the strand by applying traction for cross section alteration to the strand immediately upstream of the finish rolling unit and regulating the applied traction so that the wire rod strand emerging from the finish rolling unit is of constant uniform cross section.