§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Trade what are the figures for imported steel over the past five years, indicating the countries of origin; and what are his forecasts for the coming year.
§ Mr. Peter ReesI prefer not to make an estimate for 1982. The available information on the value of steel imports for earlier years is as follows:
£ million cif 1977 808.2 1978 882.5 1979 997.6 1980 1,275.6 *1981 480.2 * Six months Notes
(a) Figures correspond to SITC/R2 Groups 672–5, Sub-groups 678.2–4 and 679.3, Item 679.42 and relevant parts of Items 676.01–02 and 791.99 in the United Kingdom overseas Trade Statistics, and equivalent items under SITC/R1. Those for 1981 relate to January, February and September to December.
(b) The 10 countries from which the highest value of United Kingdom imports of steel was consigned in 1980 were the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium-Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Italy, Austria, Spain and Norway.
(c) Similar information for the other periods in question and details by country of origin could be provided from the official statistics only at disproportionate cost, owing to the large number of statistical headings and countries involved. More detailed information is available in the statistics published monthly and annually by the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau, copies of which are in the Library.