U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez has agreed to a four-year extension of an early warning system for monitoring steel imports.

The system, put in place as part of President Bush's relief package for the once-beleaguered industry, was set to expire March 20.

The announcement comes after persistent lobbying by the industry and members of the Congressional Steel Caucus. They thought they had a White House commitment last summer to extend import monitoring, but a formal extension never materialized.

U.S. Steel President John P. Surma said the system gives the industry information about the level, type and price of imports about a month sooner than it was previously available. Steelmakers complained that the information lag, plus the lengthy process for proving they were being harmed by unfairly traded imports, frequently meant that by the time they obtained relief the damage had already been done.

"It's a common-sense approach all about information," Surma said during a news conference. "It allows us to make more intelligent decisions as we go about our business."

Steel buyers also will benefit from more timely information on supply and demand, he said.

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, the junior Republican senator from Pennsylvania, said Gutierrez called him yesterday and said a proposal for extending the system until March 2009 would be published in the Federal Register shortly. Other countries, including Canada, China and members of the European Union, use similar early warning systems.

U.S. steelmakers recorded their most profitable year in recent memory in 2004 despite a 54 percent increase in imports. Although cheap imports that jeopardize U.S. steelmakers currently aren't a major problem, the monitoring system will help the industry when that day comes, Santorum said.