Why Are Aluminum Traders So Interested in the Italian Port Trieste?

There's been much activity at the Italian port Trieste, and we've been supporting our friends at Fastmarkets MB (previously known as Metal Bulletin) to figure out "why?" We've been seeing strong growth in inventories at Trieste. From about September 2018 to March 2019, we've noticed that the outdoor aluminum inventories there have gone from about 10,000 square meters at the port to over 15,000 square meters!

How are we able to get this information? For those not familiar with our platform - MetalSignals™ - we take satellite imagery and apply our proprietary computer vision techniques to identify and measure metal stockpiles. The image surface area of these stockpiles is correlated with their tonnage. Our customers have used this data in their models to predict futures prices, associated equities, and even forex rates.

More information can be found in the Fastmarkets MB article here.