Short Reports

Leading U.S. steel producers broadened their fight against low-priced imports, asking the federal government to impose punitive tariffs on a high-grade steel product. The U.S. industry targeted cold-rolled flat carbon steel from Japan, Russia and 10 other countries in the third major round of trade complaints since imports reached record levels last year.

Barnes & Noble Inc. is walking away from its planned purchase of Ingram Book Group because of antitrust objections to the $600 million deal that would have united the world’s largest bookstore chain and the No. 1 book wholesaler. Wednesday’s decision follows recent reports that the Federal Trade Commission might delay or block the deal because such a combination would give Barnes & Noble an unfair competitive position.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s No. 2 computer maker, expects $1 billion in sales during the next three years from a partnership with Qwest Communications International Inc. to rent out software on the Internet. Half of the revenue will come from the services H-P and Qwest will provide to other companies. The other $500 million will come from computers H-P sells to Qwest, the No. 4 U.S. long-distance company.