Bulletin

Mid July witnessed the last deliveries for cured hides into Italian tanners and late July will be the last time fresh hides are delivered in before the summer shut-down period, baring a few selected deliveries which always continue. 

The looting and rioting now appears to have stopped, at least for now. For the retail sector it is a case of reopening stores, for those that were ‘lucky’ enough to have escaped the troubles. For others it is now where the rebuilding starts. 

With the Italian business wrapped up for the summer now, and transportation arranged prior to the tannery shutdowns, the focus for many suppliers moves to China. There are those that sell many of their hides to this destination all of the year, but the number of offers always increases at this time of year as others who normally only sell into European tanneries suddenly jump aboard.

Steer prices have continued to climb, albeit at smaller increments than in previous weeks, gone are the rises of several US$ per hide at a time, but now more modest jumps of US$1.00/hide at a time. But, they are still rising and tanners are still staying in the market. 

One Australian hide supplier has reported from end of week (July 23), into early this week, that they have experienced their strongest sales by both volume and prices for many months. There is reported to have been increased biding and subsequent orders for all weights of ox and heifer hides, with the lighter hides being sold to shoe upper tanners, and the heavier hides to the upholstery tanners. 

Tanners, despite the recent price jumps have been active again in many parts of the world, with good sales being reported from both the U.S. and Australia, with many new sales being at increased price levels. 

On the ovine side of the business there has been some slight price improvement for the top weights of skins, the market is still considered to be firm although most Italian tanners are requesting offers for after the summer shut down period. 

Suppliers report that there was steady business in the run up to the Italian summer shutdown period, with bull hides continuing to be in good demand keeping prices level, but without any price rises. 

Hide supply still remains lower than in normal times, but is slowly increasing as more countries come out of lockdown. Chinese tanners are reportedly looking to secure hides, but only at a price. What the Chinese tanners do not want to see is a repeat of the situation in the U.S. which has seen some selections of steer hides rocket in value, but how can they avoid this? 

The market in the Netherlands ticks along, there is nothing spectacular occurring, that is not repeated across most other European origins. The recent sales to Italian tanners, which take them up to the end of July, and therefore their closedown period have already been concluded.