Can't get the numbers to tie out but if production is 91.6 million tons and imports are 29.6 million tons that makes imports about 25% in 2002.
However, according to the trade doc "Paradise regained for scrap prices"U.S. imports rose by almost 20% in 2004 - despite an increase of U.S. steel production of 3.2% - due to a increase in demand of 12%.
If we assume 2003 steel imports and production were the same as 2002, (I'm sure they both increased) these increases would make production 94.5 million tons and imports 35.5 million tons. Imports would be 27.3% of that total.
Like I said, couldn't get the numbers to tie, Apparent Consumption=Production+Imports-Exports should equal 107 million tons.According to the chart it's 115.75.
Anyway, imports rose but still not close to 50%.
You need to consider change in inventory. There's lots of steel lying on the ground awaiting purchase sometimes, because it is cheaper to keep on making it than to scale back operations.