For a one-year period, beginning with a release on January 28, 1999, the Department of Commerce will publish on a monthly basis preliminary data on imports of steel products. This exception to the Office of Management and Budget's Schedule of Release Dates for Principal Federal Economic Indicators has been approved to support analyses of import surges. The January 28 release will provide preliminary data covering steel imports for the month of December. The schedule for the release of the preliminary data is as follows:

Statistical Month        Release Date

December  1998           January   28, 1999 
January   1999           February  25, 1999 
February  1999           March     25, 1999 
March     1999           April     22, 1999 
April     1999           May       20, 1999 
May       1999           June      24, 1999 
June      1999           July      22, 1999 
July      1999           August    26, 1999 
August    1999           September 23, 1999 
September 1999           October   21, 1999 
October   1999           November  24, 1999 
November  1999           December  23, 1999

The data will be released at 10:00a.m. on each of the days indicated in conformance with the lock-up security guidelines set forth in Statistical Policy Directive #3.

Analysis of import data for recent months indicate that, for total steel imports, the value of the preliminary data has equaled about 96 percent of the final value reported in the regular monthly trade statistics report. Preliminary data reported for individual steel categories and at the individual country origin level have been less consistently predictive of the final data reported in the regular monthly trade statistics. The release dates and content of the regular monthly trade statistics report, "U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, (FT-900)" will remain unchanged.