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

Total Selected Commodities           566,024   1,518,413     483,191     968,756

Ingots And Steel For Castings          3,698       7,065      21,331      27,678
Blooms, Billets And Slabs            102,642     217,701      95,647     136,353
Wire Rods                             21,852      51,620      22,720      36,883
Structural Shapes Heavy                1,974       6,296         985       3,110
Plates Cut Lengths                    20,333      49,690      15,903      28,870
Plates In Coils                       24,436      66,852      13,879      23,988
Bars - Hot Rolled                     14,192      41,798       9,494      19,123
Bars - Light Shaped                    9,432      24,578       5,621      12,230
Bars - Cold Finished                  37,701     109,999      36,342      81,870
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               72,881     304,442      54,872     192,882
Wire Drawn                            24,820      91,682      20,604      63,272
Sheets Hot Rolled                      5,931      12,230       4,157       6,180
Sheets Cold Rolled                   201,236     451,549     155,833     259,884
Strip - Hot Rolled                     1,176       2,876         239         580
Strip - Cold Rolled                   23,721      80,035      25,564      75,853
                                           
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 Nick Orsini (301-763-2311), Foreign Trade
Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

SOURCE:  U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products: Preliminary
September 2004 (CB-04-184)