In the current study, we present a new model for predicting width spread of a slab with a dog-bone shaped cross section during rolling in the roughing train of a hot strip mill. The approach is based on the extremum principle for a rigid plastic material and a three dimensional admissible velocity field. The upper bound theorem is used for calculating the width spread of the slab. The prediction accuracy of the proposed model is examined through comparison with the predictions from 3-D finite element (FE) process simulations.