US Perspective – 06.10.20
Courtesy of The Maxfield Report
www.themaxfieldreport.com
The most noticeable change on offer lists last week was that packers continue to press for higher pric-es and most asking prices were roughly a dollar higher than the previous week. This, coupled with tanners in Asia observing a holiday last week, led to a lacklustre week of trading.
Overall, packers were successful in obtaining some price improvements but it is widely agreed that volumes traded were extremely limited.
The good news is that Korean tanners returned on Monday of this week, while Chinese tanners are out until middle of the week.
There appears to be an increase in demand for finished upholstery leather and bags and belt leather. According to sources, Chinese traders’ inventory for wet-salted and wet blue hides has decreased sub-stantially from the highs earlier this year, and with prices substantially higher and substantial numbers purchased at lower levels, many traders have registered sizeable profits.
Orders for shoe tanners, although better than in the first six months of this year, are still well below levels of a year ago. Tanners are pushing for price increases on new leather orders due to the recent rise in hide prices. They are looking for increases of roughly 1 RMB per square-foot, but as of this writing, these requests are being refused by leather buyers. However, it is viewed as a positive by many members of the trade that shoe tanners are starting to show signs of life.
Elsewhere, furniture and automotive business remains strong for most tanners. There are rumblings of a noticeable slowdown in purchases of wet-salted hides by many automotive tanners the past two or three weeks. This is attributed to a resurgence of covid-19 cases in many parts of the world and tan-ners are cautious this could lead to a reduction in demand.
