Abstract: In view of the problem of surface and internal cracks that were prone to occur when producing 304L austenitic stainless steel plate with high Cr and Ni content using continuous casting billets,effect of chemical composition and heating process on the microstructure and thermal plasticity of hot rolled 304L austenitic stainless steel plate was investigated. The results showed that with increasing of Ni element content, the ferrite transformation to austenite are more difficult of 304L austenitic stainless steel, and result in more large-sized ferrite phases distributed continuously at a certain angle to the rolling direction in the hot rolled plate, which deteriorated the bad thermal plasticity of the plate and formation internal cracks. With decreasing of Cr element content, the ferrite content is reduced, and result in the size and quantity of large-sized ferrite that is continuously distributed at a certain angle to the rolling direction in the plate and the thermal plasticity of the plate is improved further more. Higher heating temperature and holding time of the casting billets accelerated the transformation of residual ferrite to austenite during the hot rolling process, thereby the occurrence of large-sized ferrite that is continuously distributed at a certain angle to the rolling direction in the hot rolled plate is reduced, and the thermal plasticity of the plate is improved.