76.7% rise, compared with 1999 amounting to $630 mil. Hot-rolled strip imports recorded 2.4 million tons in the first half of the year, representing 75% of total import volume for 1999. According to the recent statistics made public by the Korea Steel Association from 'Export and Import Performance for the first half of 2000,' hot-rolled strip imports reached 2,401,976 tons, up 76.7 %, amounting to $ 639,710,000 in value, up 115.1 %, from the same period last year. The May imports of 330,000 tons seemed to have fallen slightly, but the imports in June posted 390,000 tons nearing 400,000 tons, thus enabling the industry to forecast the imports for this year at over 4,000,000 tons. Due to the upsurge in hot-rolled strip, imports of the ordinary rolled steel products posted 3,760,000 tons, up 66.8 %, amounting to over $ 1.2 billion in value, up 68.1 %, from the same period last year. The imports of cold-rolled strip, channel sections, rails, etc. showed a steady decrease, but items other than these continued to rise sharply. Meanwhile, the tally shows that exports of the ordinary rolled steel products posted 6,430,000 tons in the first of this year, up 9.1 %, and recoded $ 246,2600,000 in value, up 20.7 %, from the same period last year. The sections, etc. mostly composed of flat steel products led the increase in exports of the ordinary rolled steel products. The exports of cold-rolled strip in particular posted 1,570,000 tons, up 40.6 %, with the increases ever widening, and exports of the coated steel sheet recorded 1,340,000 tons, representing an increase of 9.7 %. Exports of thick steel plates, hot-rolled strip, steel bars, etc. showed a steady decline of around 10 %. sskim@snmnews.com