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
                                           

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

Total Selected Commodities           483,191     968,756     597,830   1,032,352

Ingots And Steel For Castings         21,331      27,678      19,707      22,560
Blooms, Billets And Slabs             95,647     136,353     187,701     209,688
Wire Rods                             22,720      36,883      34,044      54,684
Structural Shapes Heavy                  985       3,110       1,319       3,725
Plates Cut Lengths                    15,903      28,870      24,800      41,320
Plates In Coils                       13,879      23,988      15,529      18,635
Bars - Hot Rolled                      9,494      19,123      11,886      25,411
Bars - Light Shaped                    5,621      12,230       6,858      14,729
Bars - Cold Finished                  36,342      81,870      42,228      96,661
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               54,872     192,882      50,829     184,354
Wire Drawn                            20,604      63,272      19,184      60,049
Sheets Hot Rolled                      4,157       6,180      11,103      10,780
Sheets Cold Rolled                   155,833     259,884     151,225     225,268
Strip - Hot Rolled                       239         580         253         502
Strip - Cold Rolled                   25,564      75,853      21,164      63,986
                                           
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
September 2003 (CB-03-167)