Mexican Foreign Trade in Iron and Steel Products

Prior to implementation of an import substitution policy a considerable proportion of México’s steel consumption derived from imports. For the period 1943-1947, imports averaged 51.4 per cent of steel consumed, but by the years 1959-1963 this percentage had dropped to 10.7. Not only did imports as a percentage of consumption decline, but the physical volume of imports also declined. For the years 1954-1958 the average annual volume of imports was 260,794 tons while during the succeeding five-year period (19591963), the annual average was 148,134 tons. This diminution in imports occurred in spite of the fact that steel consumption more than