PRESS RELEASE
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Contact: Jane Callen 202/482-2235
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ON MONTHLY IMPORTS OF STEEL PRODUCTS |
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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:
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. - 30 - |