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Total U.S. steel imports rose in February to a level sharply higher than a year ago, the U.S. government said Tuesday.
In a preliminary report, the Commerce Department said February steel imports rose 21.7 percent from January, to 2.8 million tons from 2.3 million tons, and 65 percent from a year ago, when 1.7 million tons were imported.
The import increase came before the Bush administration imposed tariffs of up to 30 percent on certain kinds of imported steel. American steel companies and unions had lobbied hard for the tariffs because of a surge of subsidized foreign imports since 1998.
The tariffs took effect March 20.
Imports from Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Korea and Mexico increased, while imports from Canada and Japan decreased.
