US based Specialty Steel Industry of North America (SSINA) has announced their statistics on year-on-year comparison of consumption and import penetration, referring to first 8 months in 2006 and 2007.

For stainless steel, imports in August were increased by 2 percent to 550,872 tons against August of last year, consumption was increased by 11 percent to some 1.54 million tons for the first eight months and import shares 36 percent, showing a 5 percent point increase than first 8 months of last year.

For alloy tool steel, imports were decreased by 4 percent to 67,034 tons for the first 8 months of 2007 than 2006, but consumption and import penetration has no conclusion.

For electrical steel, imports during January to August rose by 67 percent to 76,365 tons than last year, the consumption shows no change and sums up to 296,101tons.