Flatness is an important quality parameter of heavy plates and it is generally achieved through cyclic elastoplastic deformation of the plate in a hot roller leveller following the rolling and cooling processes. To investigate and optimize the hot plate levelling (straightening) process, Finite Element (FE) simulations are widely used. Generally, flow curves with isotropic hardening are used for hot plate levelling simulations. However, the plate material might exhibit kinematic hardening, due to the load reversal that is seldom considered due to laborious high temperature cyclic material characterization. The current work aims at understanding the implications of considering kinematic hardening within hot heavy plate levelling simulations. Hot uniaxial and cyclic material characterization of S355 steel at 1000 °C is performed and the corresponding stress-strain curves are extracted. Using an inverse modelling technique, the associated isotropic and kinematic hardening models are calibrated. The cyclic data showed that the S355 steel exhibits kinematic hardening and the Chaboche kinematic hardening model is suitable to model this behaviour. Hot levelling simulations of plates with isotropic and kinematic hardening models showed a noticeable difference in the roll reaction forces and local curvature of the plate during the process while the resulting flatness of the final plate is not very sensitive to the material model for the investigated scenarios.