Steel industry wants US to explore import relief

The US steel industry, faced with mounting imports and slumping markets, wants Washington to help it find ways to buck imports, Monitor correspondent Ron Scherer writes.

David Roderick, the chairman of US Steel, says Washington had been slow to react to the surge in steel imports making up 25 percent of the US markets. Speaking at the annual general meeting of the American Iron and Steel Institute, Mr. Roderick said the Reagan administration had encouraged steel imports to come into this country by being ''indecisive.''

He said steel imports to the United States are ''unfairly priced and unfairly traded.'' Mr. Roderick added the US Treasury Department allowed the Japanese yen to decline in value while the Japanese-US trade deficit worsened in favor of the Japanese.

He indicated US Steel was considering filing an ''antidumping'' suit against the Japanese for the importation of tubular steel products on the West Coast. To date, no major antidumping suits have been brought against the Japanese steelmakers, who are considered the lowest-cost producers in the world.

Mr. Roderick said there was a need for immediate government-to-government consultations, but he added, ''If the solution is unsatisfactory, there might be a need for a legislative solution.''