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

ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS ADMINISTRATION
U.S. Census Bureau
                                
This release contains sensitive economic 
data not to be released before 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, 
September 30, 2003
                                
CB-03-148     Press Copy 
FT-900A (03-08)                           

For information contact:
Haydn Mearkle    (301) 763-2246
Nick Orsini         (301) 763-2311                                
                                
                                 
Preliminary: U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products
August 2003

     The U.S. Census Bureau, through the Department of Commerce, announced 
today that preliminary August steel imports were $0.7 billion (1.5 million 
metric tons).  This was a decrease of $0.2 billion (0.4 million metric tons) 
from the preliminary July totals of $0.9 billion (1.9 million metric tons).

     The July to August change in steel imports, based on metric tonnage, 
reflected a decrease primarily in blooms, billets, and slabs.  Monthly 
changes in steel imports reflected decreases primarily with Brazil, Mexico, 
Canada, and China.  

     The year to date final statistics through July  2003 showed steel 
imports of 12.7 million metric tons, a decrease of 3.6 million metric tons 
from the 16.3 million metric tons through July 2002.  The largest commodity 
decreases were in blooms, billets, and slabs; and wire rods.  The largest 
country decreases were with Brazil, Russia, 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 October 28, 2003                     

SOURCE: Report FT900A (CB-03-129), U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade
        Division, Preliminary July 2003.  For more information, contact 
        Haydn R. Mearkle (301-763-2246) or Nick Orsini (301-763-2311), 
        Foreign Trade Division.   

NOTICE

July 2003 revision

While processing the August 2003 preliminary Imports for Consumption of Steel 
Products report, the U.S. Census Bureau discovered an error in the assignment 
of  Harmonized Tariff commodity classifications to the American Iron and Steel 
groupings.  This error relates to selected data for the month of July 2003 
only.  The error affected the total, carbon (non-alloy), and section 201 E
xhibits.  The cold rolled sheets category was affected in the total and carbon 
(non-alloy) Exhibits and the flat rolled-cold rolled category was affected in 
the section 201 Exhibit.  While the corrections were limited to one American 
Iron and Steel grouping, the corrections were distributed among several 
countries.

With this release, the Bureau has revised the July 2003 final and preliminary 
steel data to reflect the current Harmonized Tariff assignments.  The July 2003 
exhibits and data tables have been corrected and are available on the Foreign 
Trade Division’s Web site at: 
www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/press-release/.