US Perspective - 27.09.11
Courtesy of the Maxfield Report
www.themaxfieldreport.com
The consensus of the trade is that last week was a relatively quiet week of trading. Some members of the leather trade blame the general lack of offerings from packers, while others are of the opinion sellers had no interest in chasing the lower ideas of buyers.
In the meantime, we have heard unconfirmed rumours accusing some of the various packers of selling some moderate quantities of hides at levels well below where trading is being reported; however, we are not sure if these rumours are from buyers themselves or disgruntled buyers who were not able to buy hides last week.
In regards to trading levels, we would have to call last week’s prices no better or worse than steady. There was simply a general lack of trading. In the meantime, slaughter levels remain decent for this time of year and the USDA Report indicates packers have not sold their weekly production the past five weeks. This has led to speculation that we will see packers offer a few more hides this week.
Reports from the cowhide trade were definitely mixed last week. Reports from producers are claiming they had a decent week of trading, with prices no worse than steady to slightly higher on a few items, while buyers say that they believed there was quite a bit of interest last week, with sales concluded at steady to slightly lower levels.
Overall, it appears as if there are still some producers willing to try to hold to their last traded levels on HNDC, while we are hearing reports that those producers with large inventories of HNC may have found a few buyers and enter the week in much better shape. Meanwhile, it appears there are more than several producers with unsold inventories of HBC for sale, leading to speculation of lower prices this week.
We continue to hear reports from Asia claiming numerous producers appear focused on selling hides direct to tanners. Various rumours insist these producers are willingly selling at levels $1-$2 lower than prices traders are offering, while there are several complaints from various members of the trade claiming these sales on an FOB basis are well below the trading levels packers are quoting other FOB buyers.
