This week: It remains the case that the last quarter of the current year in no way corresponds to usual developments. The challenges lie much less in processing sales and responding to enquiries than in ensuring that all contracts are processed on time. Logistics is a big problem. Shipping companies seem to have abandoned all planning; what was known for many years as reliable conference shipping has now fallen back to what used to be called tramp shipping. Ships come and go as they please, deadlines are not met, booked shipments are cancelled at short notice and the handling in the ports leaves more than a little to be desired. All at the expense of the person paying for the party, of course. By all accounts, things are not expected to get much better in the first quarter of next year either. The Chinese New Year with its interruptions in the ports in Asia is always a challenge even in normal years. How will the shipping companies deal with it this year? We’ll find out in eight weeks’ time.

Otherwise, the market is becoming increasingly divided into two worlds. In Asia, leather production still seems to be relatively constant and stable. However, most customers, especially in China, are firmly convinced that the one-way street of prices is far from over. For cowhides in particular, buyers in social media messaging groups have obviously decided to try and reduce prices significantly once again. This is somewhat at odds with what is being reported from other supplier countries.

In Europe, the year is slowly coming to an end. The delivery programmes, which are traditionally planned in advance and coordinated with fixed delivery dates, are being adhered to and ensure that production is largely secured until week 51. The possible connections from mid-January are not yet being discussed and this may not actually happen for another two weeks.

The work on logistics and administration is very challenging, while sales activity is rather manageable. As a result, there were only a few sales to Asia last week and once again the real interest was in heavier, male hides, whereas only very aggressive price offers were seen for the classic female hides. These were hardly worthy of further consideration and therefore no real and serious business negotiations took place.

The kill: Only in terms of slaughter are we seeing a normal final phase of the year. It is raining a lot, the temperatures are appropriate for the time of year and the meat business appears to be satisfactory, nationally and internationally. Prices for live cattle are still at a very high level, which is good for the farmers, but possibly more difficult for the margins on meat sales. The kill remains very high, in line with the time of year.

What we expect: The majority of tanners in northern China are definitely trying to drive down the prices of raw materials significantly. The argument is always to point to the falling prices for splits, but then it has to be said that it is really worrying if the decision to buy really only depends on how much money you get for the split. Normally, the grain is actually the part that exerts the main leverage on the costing. Depending on customer stock levels, waiting times may well be extended again in Asia. 

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