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 2005               August 2004
                                      Cumulative to             Cumulative to
                                      Date - Final              Date - Final
Commodity
Grouping                        Quantity    Value       Quantity    Value

Total Selected Commodities           613,806   2,099,414     566,024   1,518,413

Ingots And Steel For Castings         11,173      27,233       3,698       7,065
Blooms, Billets And Slabs             96,563     272,593     102,642     217,701
Wire Rods                             27,355      75,886      21,852      51,620
Structural Shapes Heavy                1,166       4,877       1,974       6,296
Plates Cut Lengths                    26,590     106,182      20,333      49,690
Plates In Coils                       24,190      75,541      24,436      66,852
Bars - Hot Rolled                     15,252      60,476      14,192      41,798
Bars - Light Shaped                    4,730      15,228       9,432      24,578
Bars - Cold Finished                  65,556     251,456      37,701     109,999
Stainless Pipe & Tubing               82,727     436,425      72,881     304,442
Wire Drawn                            27,446     120,326      24,820      91,682
Sheets Hot Rolled                      7,841      14,967       5,931      12,230
Sheets Cold Rolled                   195,516     526,979     201,236     451,549
Strip - Hot Rolled                     1,299       3,606       1,176       2,876
Strip - Cold Rolled                   26,404     107,642      23,721      80,035
                                           
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 (301-763-6959) or Vanessa Ware
(301-763-2311), Foreign Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau.

SOURCE:  U.S. Imports for Consumption of Steel Products: Preliminary
September 2005 (CB-05-150)