Besides the geometrical boundary requirements of cold rolling mills on the incoming hot rolled strip in this abstract the specialities regarding the production technology of carbon steels made out of hot rolled strip are described and discussed. Relation of rectangular hot- and cold-rolled steel strip profiles is analyzed, as well as different qualities of profile shapes and their effect on the cold-rolled final product. A comparison of hot rolled strip with different provenances is done anonymized. The importance of the strip geometry for different selected applications is shown as an example. Typical examples of cold-rolled strip steel components are displayed: retractor spring of safety belt, cam follower, valve train, plate link chain for CVT-gearbox. Finally the economical relevance of the strip profile for an optimised output is shown.