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
                                           

                                      May 2004                  May 2003
                                      Cumulative to             Cumulative to
                                      Date - Final              Date - Final
Commodity
Grouping                        Quantity    Value       Quantity    Value

Total Selected Commodities           334,720     869,578     303,068     600,706

Ingots And Steel For Castings            934       1,753      13,844      18,114
Blooms, Billets And Slabs             62,075     128,356      54,886      77,039
Wire Rods                             12,296      28,068      15,319      24,379
Structural Shapes Heavy                1,349       4,046         664       2,120
Plates Cut Lengths                    12,285      28,013      10,097      17,656
Plates In Coils                       15,534      41,483       7,160      12,075
Bars - Hot Rolled                      8,595      24,653       5,651      11,253
Bars - Light Shaped                    6,016      14,723       3,918       8,501
Bars - Cold Finished                  22,810      62,041      24,455      54,365
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               43,137     168,046      32,865     117,667
Wire Drawn                            15,688      55,253      13,480      40,375
Sheets Hot Rolled                      2,663       5,170       2,395       3,664
Sheets Cold Rolled                   115,978     257,634     101,279     163,759
Strip - Hot Rolled                       452       1,003         149         355
Strip - Cold Rolled                   14,909      49,335      16,908      49,383
                                           
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
June 2004 (CB-04-118)