US Perspective—18.08.20
Courtesy of The Maxfield Report
www.themaxfieldreport.com
Last week, tanners willing to step up and pay the asking prices of packers were able to conclude business, while tanners who insisted on prices under the asking prices found packers unwilling to negotiate prices and will have to wait.
There were suggestions of better interest in wet blue hides last week, which would be welcome news for producers who had been looking for sales for several weeks.
Historically, business tends to start to improve for most shoe tanners in July. It does not appear as if this came to fruition this year for most. However, we are hearing that in the last week to ten days a couple of large Asian shoe tanners have been “kicking tyres”, checking the availability of wet blue in the US.
Reports from the automotive and furniture trade continue to suggest that tanners are enjoying an improvement in business compared to the first six months of this year. There are also reports of several of the automakers who appear as if they are interested in discussing the possibility of putting better quality leather in their 2022 models. A surging housing market in the US is resulting in some decent furniture leather orders for tanners, which is creating decent demand for lower-grade hides.
Cowhide sales were in line with those of the previous week.
Big packers have seen prices rise $3.75 or 27%, since the end of May, while producers of cowhides have seen prices rise $3.00 or 63% over the same period of time. Leather orders may be a bit better than tanners in general are suggesting.
