US Perspective—20.03.18
20/03/2018
www.themaxfieldreport.com
The APLF exhibition is over and according to those in attendance, the number of visitors on day three, as expected, was disappointing. Those who took the time to travel to Hong Kong are of the opinion that packers were not able to sell as many hides as they would have liked, attributed to packers insisting on trading at levels as close to steady as possible, while resisting attempts from tanners to aggressively bid prices lower.
Sources share that some wet blue producers were laying claims to enjoying some decent sales over the course of the past week and it will certainly be interesting to see what this coming week’s USDA Export Sales Report has to say. According to reports some of the larger tanners who use wet blue hides were reported to be active over the past week to ten days searching for additional quantities of wet blue and for fairly prompt shipment.
Sales of wet blue hides this year are only averaging 100,000 hides per week with thoughts by pundits that the weekly production of wet blue hides is running closer to 150,000 or 160,000 hides. Meanwhile, as usual, there are plenty of unconfirmed rumours accusing some of the packers of discreetly trying to conclude direct business with tanners and accused of offering at levels well below their “official” asking prices. Unconfirmed rumours claim packers sold CBS at levels of $55 C&F, BBS at $64 C&F, HTS at $57 C&F and BRS at $56 C&F.
Several members of the trade claim packers did not appear nearly as confident at the end of the event in Hong Kong. Some took the liberty to suggest the packers were perhaps starting to “second-guess” themselves.
Elsewhere, reports from members of the trade in Asia claim interest in big packer hides remains minimal at best, although tanners appear as if they will listen to offers; however, many were reluctant to offer any bids last week. It appears trading on cowhides was very active during the fair, at aggressively lower levels, as it appears sellers panicked.
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