PURPOSE: To provide hot rolling mills of the type producing bar and rod products to obtain improvements in the pinch roll units and associated controls employed to propel and/or retard the movement of such products at various places along the mill pass line. CONSTITUTION: In a pinch roll unit(24,26) for either propelling or retarding a product moving along the pass line (PL) of a rolling mill, the pinch roll unit comprises a pair of levers mounted for rotation about parallel first axes; roll shafts carried by the levers, each roll shaft being journalled for rotation about a second axis parallel to the first axis of its respective lever; pinch rolls(34) carried by the roll shafts, the pinch rolls defining a gap there between for receiving the product; an electrically powered first motor; linkage means for mechanically coupling the first motor to the levers, the first motor being operable via the linkage means to rotate the levers about the first axes and to move the pinch rolls between open positions spaced from the product, and close positions contacting and gripping the product therebetween; and an electrically powered second motor for rotatably driving the pinch rolls, wherein the linkage means comprises a disc crank driven by the first motor for rotation about a third axis parallel to the first and second axes, and a pair of link members, each link member being pivotally coupled at opposite ends to the disc crank and to a respective one of the levers, and wherein the pinch roll unit further comprises detector means (HMD-1,HMD-2) for generating a signal indicative of the presence of the product at a location along the pass line preceding the gap defined between the pinch rolls, and control means responsive to the signal for operating the first motor to move the pinch rolls between the open and closed positions by rotating the levers about the first axes.