Not Seasonally Adjusted
            Exhibit 2B:  U.S. Imports for Consumption of Stainless Steel
                              Products:  (Census Basis)
                                           
               Quantity in metric tons/ value in thousands of dollars.
                    Details may not equal totals due to rounding
                                           

                                      March 2003                March 2002
                                      Cumulative to             Cumulative to
                                      Date - Final              Date - Final
Commodity
Grouping                        Quantity    Value       Quantity    Value

Total Selected Commodities           180,132     351,451     245,497     404,352

Ingots And Steel For Castings          8,296      11,111       7,827       8,846
Blooms, Billets And Slabs             30,702      42,048      85,051      89,959
Wire Rods                              9,493      15,062      18,204      28,886
Structural Shapes Heavy                  307         860         603       1,711
Plates Cut Lengths                     6,280      10,807       8,807      14,628
Plates In Coils                        4,846       7,835       7,215       8,445
Bars - Hot Rolled                      3,165       6,133       6,535      13,555
Bars - Light Shaped                    2,607       5,670       2,220       5,258
Bars - Cold Finished                  13,873      30,609      16,151      38,343
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               19,356      70,479      17,962      66,686
Wire Drawn                             7,738      22,615       7,604      23,756
Sheets Hot Rolled                      1,277       1,706       6,405       5,287
Sheets Cold Rolled                    61,491      96,085      53,426      75,954
Strip - Hot Rolled                        97         240         111         263
Strip - Cold Rolled                   10,603      30,191       7,376      22,776
                                           
NOTE:   See the cover report specifically explaining the current month's preliminary
steel imports trade data or
www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/steel_index.html.

CONTACT:  For more information, contact Haydn R. Mearkle (301-763-2246) or Nick
Orsini (301-763-2311), Foreign Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

SOURCE:  U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products: Preliminary
April 2003 (CB-03-82)