Bulletin

Mixed reports and thoughts from Chinese tanners post (APLF) Hong Kong. Those tanners producing upholstery or light weight finished goods, such as hand bags are said to being doing ok and have reasonably full order books.

One respected trader in the United Kingdom has reported to theSauerReport that they prefer to sell their hides to European tanners, rather than to Chinese or Korean tanners simply because of the time lag between the sale and the delivery. 

If we take a step back in time to around 2010, we will find that all was rosy in hide and skin business. Demand far outweighed supply, so selling was easy in many ways; material was not so much as sold but ‘allocated’ to tanners. 

Reports being received, following the (APLF), indicate that there were good sales of wet-blue and good demand for higher quality selections. The situation, however, is very different for leathers of a lower quality. 

After four years of continued aggressive growth of the cattle herd, the 2018 statistics only showed a modest increase from the previous year. 

Total leather production decreased in January by 7.3% over the previous month. The figures for the 12 month period to end January showed a growth of 0.6%. 

Calf skin suppliers are under more pressure from end-use tanners to reduce prices. Up until recently the selling price for this product had had remained stable, but recent sales have resulted in a reduction off €0.20/kg across the weight ranges. 

Most German suppliers seem to have been able to stand on with their sale prices, up until this point. But reports are now being received from traders inside Germany that they may have to concede a little on the price for the next round of sales. 

The ovine skin business remains as steady, most suppliers are still charging for hoggets and ewe skins to be removed from the abattoirs. 

Following recent subscriber feedback, theSauerReport market analysist has added or updated several new raw material origin price trend graphs.