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
                                           

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

Total Selected Commodities           493,506   1,310,123     428,974     856,034

Ingots And Steel For Castings          2,230       4,534      19,737      25,545
Blooms, Billets And Slabs             95,250     199,634      85,257     120,958
Wire Rods                             18,477      43,647      20,168      32,512
Structural Shapes Heavy                1,718       5,254         851       2,640
Plates Cut Lengths                    17,516      42,393      13,878      24,984
Plates In Coils                       22,268      61,041      12,045      20,763
Bars - Hot Rolled                     12,567      36,785       8,362      16,675
Bars - Light Shaped                    8,419      21,643       5,238      11,404
Bars - Cold Finished                  32,295      91,628      33,431      74,806
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               63,145     259,016      47,455     168,000
Wire Drawn                            21,793      79,735      18,458      56,187
Sheets Hot Rolled                      3,620       7,320       3,447       5,322
Sheets Cold Rolled                   172,729     386,228     137,613     228,179
Strip - Hot Rolled                       766       1,851         188         454
Strip - Cold Rolled                   20,712      69,415      22,845      67,605
                                           
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
August 2004 (CB-04-164)