The port of Marghera, in north-east Italy, one of the main hubs for steel in the Mediterranean, saw the volume of steel products arriving more than double in August, Kallanish learns from port data.

Overall more than 335,000 tonnes of steel products arrived at the port, up 103.4% year-on-year. Plate arrivals saw a 170% increase y-o-y, to 33,330t, while pig iron landings increased by over 557% y-o-y to 121,649t.

The only product registering a significant decrease in landings during the period was coil, falling by over -20% y-o-y to 46,320t.

Also of note is the fact that over 60,000t of HBI arrived at the port in August, while in July 2017 and August 2016 no such imports had landed.