United States Department of COMMERCE NEWS  
Washington, D.C. 20230             

ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS ADMINISTRATION
Bureau of the Census
                                
This release contains sensitive economic data not to be released before 
10:00 a.m. Tuesday, April 30, 2002
                                
CB-02-58     Press Copy 
FT-900A (02-04)

For information contact:
Haydn Mearkle    (301) 457-2246
Nick Orsini         (301) 457-2311 
                                
     Preliminary: U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products March 2002

     The Bureau of the Census, through the Department of Commerce, announced 
today that preliminary March steel imports were $0.8 billion (1.8 million 
metric tons).  This was a decrease of $0.2 billion (0.9 million metric tons) 
from the preliminary February totals of $1.0 billion (2.8 million metric tons).

     The February to March change in steel imports, based on metric tonnage, 
reflected decreases primarily in blooms, billets and slabs; reinforcing bars; 
and hot rolled sheets. An increase occurred primarily in wire rods.  Monthly 
changes in steel imports reflected decreases primarily with Brazil, Russia, 
and Korea.  An increase occurred primarily with Mexico.

     The year to date final statistics through February of 2002 showed steel 
imports of 5.5 million metric tons, an increase of 1.6 million metric tons 
from the 3.9 million metric tons through February 2001.  The largest commodity 
increase was in blooms, billets and slabs.  The largest country increases 
were with Brazil and Japan.

Notes:
       
The data in this report are preliminary and subject to revisions.

Analysis of recent months for steel product imports indicates the value of 
preliminary data should equal about 96 percent of the final value reported 
in the regular monthly trade statistics report.  Preliminary data reported 
for individual steel categories and at the individual country of origin 
level have been less consistently predictive of the final data reported in 
the regular monthly trade statistics. For further details visit the Foreign 
Trade Division web site at: www.census.gov/foreign-trade/www/.  On the web 
site you can access product by country and country by product tables.

The next release is May 29, 2002                                   

Notice

On March 7, the President imposed new duties on many steel products effective 
March 20.  The administrative procedures relating to these duties most likely 
have caused some understatement of the March data presented in this release.
  
Whether reported electronically or on paper, data for a given transaction are 
not provided to the Census Bureau until all duties have been paid.  As a result 
of duty deferral, it is likely that some of the decrease in steel imports shown 
in this release results from delays in the Census Bureau receiving the data. 
Moreover, at the time of the release of this report, the Census Bureau does not 
have information on the volume of trade that has been affected by the imposition 
of the duties.  Some March imports most likely will not be available until the 
April statistics are issued. 


SOURCE: Report FT900A (CB-02-58), U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade
        Division, Preliminary MARCH 2002.  For more information, contact 
        Haydn R. Mearkle (301-457-2246) or Nick Orsini (301-457-2311), 
        Foreign Trade Division.