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
                                           

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

Total Selected Commodities           546,330   1,095,974     656,195   1,143,822

Ingots And Steel For Castings         24,625      31,826      21,770      25,178
Blooms, Billets And Slabs            106,268     152,806     196,826     222,097
Wire Rods                             24,367      39,845      37,725      60,540
Structural Shapes Heavy                1,244       3,895       1,838       4,865
Plates Cut Lengths                    17,228      31,674      27,095      44,910
Plates In Coils                       16,893      28,936      17,179      21,130
Bars - Hot Rolled                     10,107      20,401      12,898      27,282
Bars - Light Shaped                    6,425      13,889       7,994      17,027
Bars - Cold Finished                  40,379      91,391      47,211     108,008
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               62,562     219,614      56,379     205,299
Wire Drawn                            23,081      70,960      21,465      67,328
Sheets Hot Rolled                     10,427      13,954      12,225      12,201
Sheets Cold Rolled                   174,026     292,106     171,743     256,614
Strip - Hot Rolled                       269         646         292         567
Strip - Cold Rolled                   28,431      84,030      23,554      70,776
                                           
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
October 2003 (CB-03-183)