In comparison, Nordic buyers, who already had a foot in the London market, secured competitive terms based on typically higher quality risk engineering information and an ability to place chunks of what they perceived to be over-priced layers into captive insurers. Russia and Central Europe saw local insurers seeking rate increases, many for the first time in a decade, which drove some repositioning of capacity, but only in a modest way, and mostly in the primary layers. The major European reinsurers view the region as under-priced and continue to stay on the sidelines, which remains a surprise because it has been one of the most profitable regions based on Aon’s data, admittedly from a heavily metals industry-weighted sector, which did have losses in 2020. The major Middle East metal smelters utilised freshly created captive insurers to mitigate the loss of regional capacity and the return of underwriting authority to London and European head offices, providing some respite to what remains a hard market sector. Increased retentions meant losses to carriers reduced. We expect that 2021 will see an easing of upwards rating trend for the region, particularly as local carriers’ appetite appeared to be returning in Q4 2020. Further details on the metals and mining sector are in a separate section of this report. The upgrade of relations between Israel and the UAE is an interesting market development because of the Dubai market hub. We expect new capacity options for Israeli risks to emerge. Shares of programmes from South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana placed in London increased. Buyers from the mining industry experienced a continued re-rating of programmes, and London and European carriers remained the principal provider of capacity where large policy limits were required.