US Perspective—04.08.20
Courtesy of The Maxfield Report
www.themaxfieldreport.com
Last week in the big packer trade packers added a few more selections to their offer lists, but we were not aware of any of the packers who had a full complement of selections for sale. Most were content to leave asking prices unchanged with the last traded levels, although there were a few isolated reports of packers raising asking prices on some preferred selections by 50 cents to a dollar.
What we found intriguing about offer lists last week were some of the shipping times attached to offer. Offering hides for shipment in August or September in the last week of July does not send a strong message to potential buyers that you are well sold.
Meanwhile, producers of wet blue continued to have more than their fair share of offers last week; the consensus is that there is a sizeable overhang of unsold hides for sale. In fact, we continue to hear numerous reports of wet blue producers aggressively pressing some of their “old friends” to make bids. As a result, there are a number of unconfirmed rumours accusing some producers of quietly attempting to sell “behind the scenes” at levels well below their official asking prices.
Cowhide lists were a bit less populated last week following a couple of weeks of decent sales. The number of cows in the harvest mix is finally starting to ease, helping producers to get themselves into a better sold-forward position. The initial price ideas of buyers were slightly higher than in the past couple of weeks, which we believe indicates that those always looking for bargains have acknowledged the opportunity to buy at extremely cheap levels had come and gone.
